
Class. 
Book 



£ 



SINFULNESS 



OF 




AMERICAN SLAVERY: 



PROVED FROM 

ITS EVIL SOURCES; ITS INJUSTICE; ITS WRONGS; ITS CONTRARIETY 

TO MANY SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS, PROHIBITIONS, AND 

PRINCIPLES, AND TO THE CHRISTIAN SPIRIT; 

AND FROM ITS EVIL EFFECTS; 

TOGETHER WITH OBSERVATIONS ON EMANCIPATION, AND THE 

DUTIES OF AMERICAN CITIZENS IN REGARD 

TO SLAVERY. 

BY / 

REV. CHARLEs'eLLIOTT, D. D. 

EDITED BY 

REV. B. F. TEFFT, D. D. 

"Thou shalt not steal." — Eighth Commandment. 

"He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall 
surely be put to death." — Exodus xxi, 16. 

"The law is made . . for men-stealers." — 1 Timothy I, 9, 10. 

" Hominum fures, qui vel servos vel liberos abducunt, retinent, vendunt, vel emunt." 
[Those are men-stealers who abduct, keep, sell, or buy slaves or freemen.] — Pool's 
Synopsis on 1 Timothy i, 9, 10. 

"Every American who loves his country, should dedicate his whole life, and 
every faculty of his soul, to efface the foul stain [of slavery] from its character." — 
Edinburo Review, No. lxi, p. 146. 

IN TWO VOLUMES. 
VOLUME I. 



Cincinnati : 

PUBLISHED BY L. SWORMSTEDT & J. H. POWER, 

FOB, THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, AT THE WESTERN BOOK CONCERN, 

CORNER OF MAIN AND EIGHTH STREETS. 

R. P. THOMPSON, PRINTER. 

1850. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, 

BY SWORMSTEDT & POWER, 

In the Clerk's Office for the District Court for the District of Ohio. 



PREFACE. 



The General conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, in 1848, appointed the author of these volumes to 
write the history of the Church for the four previous years, 
which involved, as a leading topic, a survey of the subject 
of slavery. This led him to as accurate and extensive an 
examination of slavery, in all its relations, as his capacity 
and means of information would allow. He had been, for 
the fifteen years previous to the last, engaged in conducting 
the periodical press, so that ample means of information 
were within his reach from this source. All the books pub- 
lished on slavery in this country, for the most part, form 
part of his library. The greater part, too, of what ap- 
peared in Britain, on the slave-trade, and emancipation, 
through the gift of Dr. Dixon, are in his possession. An 
inspection of the list of books and pamphlets, at the end 
of the second volume, will show, that all the important 
sources of information have been consulted. 

Before commencing, in form, the contemplated history, a 
careful study of the whole subject of slavery was necessary. 
This led to the preparation of the following volume, on the 
sinfulness of slavery, which is proved from its evil origin, 
its injustice, its wrongs, its conflict with Christian principles 
and the Christian spirit, and from its evil effects on all con- 
cerned in it. The material for the preparation of another 
volume, on Servitude and Slavery, is now collected. These 
volumes are intended to show that the Scripture neither sanc- 
tions nor tolerates slavery proper; that the regulations of 
the Mosaic code referred to servitude, so as to prevent it 
Vom running into slavery. An account of Roman slavery, 

3 



4 PREFACE. 

drawn particularly from the civil law, is reserved for this 
connection, as it stands related to slavery as treated in the 
New Testament. The preparation of this volume is now 
postponed, till the history of the four years shall have 
been completed, if God spare life and health even for this. 

The history will consider, as a matter of course, slavery 
in its ecclesiastical relations, as a subject of discipline in the 
Christian Church. Our plan, then, embraces the general 
subject of slavery in the present volumes; servitude and 
slavery as portrayed and treated in holy Scripture; and 
slavery in its ecclesiastical relations. 

The writer of these volumes is bound by no undue obli- 
gations, nor is he trammeled with any impediments, either 
ecclesiastical, political, or social. The truth and the right, 
and they only, have magisterial control over him in this 
matter. He owes no submission to any man, or set of men 
in this world, other than what the pure truth of God re- 
quires and the Scriptural principles of right demand. He 
is bound by no dictation, jurare in verba magiatri, to submit 
to any master, other than God and his holy word. He has 
no place to seek in Church, state, or society, to trammel 
him in any thing. As a free man, therefore, he unfalter- 
ingly speaks out, fearing Him only who is the author of all 
good, the source of truth, and the giver of liberty to man, 
as one of his noblest gifts to the human family. Without 
further explanation, he therefore submits the following 
volumes to the consideration of a free people, confidently 
believing that they will receive them with the cordiality of 
independent and free men. 

Charles Elliott. 

Xenia, Ohio, Jan. 1, 1850. 



CONTENTS. 

PART I. 

AMERICAN SLAVERY AND THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. 
CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Slavery defined — Roman laws — Quotation from Stroud — South 
Carolina on Slavery— Legal view of the question— Sketch of the 

laws relating to slavery — Judicial decisions upholding slavery 

Decision of Judge Crenshaw — Correspondence between the prac- 
tices and workings of the system and the statutes and legal decis- 
ions on the same— No people better than their laws — Declaration 
of Scripture — Difference between the system of slavery and some 
who are slaveholders by law — Two classes of slaveholders — Great 
dissimilarity — Christians generally opposed to slavery — Some who 
think the system right — Resolutions of the General Assembly of 
the Presbyterian Church — Declaration of Rev. James Smylie — 
Baptist pleaders of slavery — Dr. Fuller — Charleston and Edgefield 
associations — Methodist slave-pleaders — Dr. Longstreet — Professor 
Simms — Statesmen and politicians in favor of slavery — Governor 
M'Duflie — Mr. Calhoun— Mr. Hammond— "W. B. Seabrook— Civil 

and political features of the system — Dr. Wayland and Dr. Fuller 

Slavery tested by the Scripture standard — Who are slaves ? — Defi- 
nitions and distinctions — Change of times and opinions... .Page 15 

CHAPTER II. 

MORAL IDENTITY OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 

A brief survey of the origin of the slave-trade — How are slaves 
procured in Africa? — Force, fraud, and theft — The "middle pas- 
sage " — Its horrors — Slave markets — The home traffic portrayed — 
American slavery constantly reducing persons to slavery — In- 
stances — Free negroes — Piracy — Slave-raising — Opinion of Judge 
Upshur, Mr. Mercer, Mr. Clay, and Mr. Gholson — Hon. John Ran- 
dolph — Professor Dew — Quotations from various newspapers — The 
trade between the states — Advertisements — Address of Mr. Gid- 
dings — Scene in Union town, Pa. — J. K. Paulding, Esq. — Feather- 



6 CONTEXTS. 

stonaugh on America — Rev. J. O'Kelly on negro slavery — Specifi- 
cation of the atrocities connected with American slavery — The hor- 
rors of the two systems alike — Shakspeare quoted — William Pinck- 
ney — Thomas Erskine — Slavery the parent of the slave-trade — 
Africa before the existence of the slave-trade — The destruction of 
slavery certain Page 39 

CHAPTER III. 

THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 

No one ever born a slave — Liberty the natural and inalienable 
right of every human being — Violation of the law of nature — All 
men owners of themselves — Heathenism — The enslavement of 
children forbidden in the law of Moses — Contrary to the spirit of 
the New Testament — Colored children as justly entitled to freedom 
as the white — Continuance in theft — The darkest page of human 
criminality — The enslaving of children a mere substitute for the 
African slave-trade — No one entitled to the services of another for 
life — Right of freedom belongs to all — Man not a chattel — Opinions 
of statesmen — Rights of the master considered — Stolen property — 
Kidnappers — Every case in which a child is made a slave is a 
new case of enslavement, as original as that which occurs in the 
case of an African stolen from Africa — The Rev. John Wesley 
quoted 83 



PART II. 

DEPRIVATION OF NATURAL RIGHTS. 
CHAPTER I. 

DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS NATURAL RIGHTS PERSONAL LIBERTY PER- 
SONAL SECURITY RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 

Wrongs — Two kinds^-Rights absolute and rights relative — 
Opinion of Blackstone — Civil and conventional rights — Terms 
defined and principles resulting — Divine rights — Commentaries on 
the laws of England — Natural rights trampled on by slavery — 
Personal liberty — Objections to making man an article of prop- 
erty — The idea of holding man as property is contrary to the right 
idea of property — The inalienable rights of man by slavery be- 
come the sole property of another — If one man be sold as property, 
so can all men — Making men property leads to treating them as 
property — Hebrew servants were not property — Brougham's speech 
before the British Parliament — Buxton quoted— Dr. Rice — Slavery 
and the right of holding property — Laws of the slave states in 
regard to the time to be employed in labor — Inhuman regulations — 
Downright robbery — Slavery at war with personal security . . .104 



CONTENTS. 7 

CHAPTER II. 

DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS — EDUCATION. 

Education withheld from the slave — No legal provision for per- 
sons of color — Laws of South Carolina — Statements of slavehold- 
ers — Synod of Kentucky — The interests of the master against the 
mental culture of his slaves — Violation of Scriptural precepts and 
commands — Disastrous effects of ignorance — Channing quoted — 
Chancellor Harper — Rev. James Smylie — His views in reference to 
educating the slave population — Fuller and "Wayland — Protection 
of the muster secured by the ignorance of the slaves — The laboring 
classes of free states — Laboring classes of Europe — A heavy mill- 
stone — Oral religious instruction a failure — Such instruction 
too limited, too superficial, and too circumscribed in every par- 
ticular Page 121 

CHAPTER III. 

DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS DEPRIVATION OF RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 

The duties inculcated by Christianity — Quotations from the Bi- 
ble — Rights of conscience — The Constitution and the laws of the 
United States — Denial of all religious privileges to the slave — A 
law of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and Mississippi — Slavery 
versus religious instruction and the privileges of the Gospel — 
Slaves denied access to God's word, not provided with a regular 
ministry, and the social means of grace but limitedly used by 
them — Argument of Dr. Fuller — Three ways in which the rights 
of conscience are violated — A most heinous sin — Testimony of the 
synod of Kentucky — One of the worst features of the slave sys- 
tem — Slavery against the spread of true religion — Remarks of a 
runaway slave — Startling statements 134 

CHAPTER IV. 

DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 

No such thing as marriage, properly so called, among slaves — 
Opinion of Mr. Dulaney, Attorney-General of Maryland — Annihi- 
lation of the right of marriage — The Scriptures made void — Mr. 
Rice to Mr. Blanchard — Singular evasion — Slavery leads to licen- 
tiousness among the slaves and among the masters — General con- 
cubinage — Consequences of the abrogation of marriage — Masters' 
children frequently slaves — The quadroons of New Orleans — Sale 
of one's own offspring — British custom — Slave-growing — Dr. "W. 
E. Channing's views — Miss Martineau on slavery and emancipa- 
tion — Monstrous illegal amalgamation — Shameless hypocrisy 

Degradation of woman — Public advertisements — Bible opposition — 
Opinions of some slaveholders against such abominations — Incest 
common — Redemption from slavery 14(j 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

DEPRIVATION OF EIGHTS CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY, INVOLVING 

INJURIES. 

Civil disabilities of slavery, involving great injustice — A slave 
can not be a witness against a white person — "Wheeler and Stroud 
quoted — The law excluding the testimony of slaves extends to all 
colored persons — Injurious effects of this disability — Most of the 
protecting laws a mere nullity — Chief Justice Atley — Sir William 
Young, Governor of Tobago, and others — Decision of the Supreme 
Court of Louisiana — The remedy proposed by southern laws of no 
account — South Carolina enactment — Why are colored persons 
refused the privilege of testifying in court? — The question con- 
sidered — Unparalleled intolerance — Peculiar viciousness — A slave 
can not be a party to a civil suit — Six considerations named — 
Speech of a slave on trial — Unlimited submission required of the 
slave — Law of Georgia, Maryland, Kentucky, Louisiana, and 
South Carolina — Injury of a slave — Slaves can make no con- 
tracts—Can not redeem themselves — Laws against emancipation 
examined Page 159 



PART III. 

INJURIES INFLICTED BY AMERICAN SLAVERY. 
CHAPTER I. 

EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 

Primary object of law — Quotations from Scripture — Cruel enact- 
ments against the slave — Specimens from the laws of various slave 
states — Whipping and death — The chief kinds of punishment — 
Prosecution of slaves — Strange measure — Trial by jury — The slave 
always kept profoundly ignorant of the laws, and when, through 
ignorance, he breaks one, condign punishment results — Child's 
Oration — Unlimited power of the master in punishing a slave — Law 
of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia — Moderate correction — 
South Carolina regulation — Constitution of Louisiana, Mississippi, 
and Missouri — Quotation from Stroud — The master and his deputy 
possessed of boundless power — The heart of slavery revealed — The 
opinion of Whitemarsh B. Seabrook, of South Carolina — Five 
methods of punishment proposed — Corporeal punishment — Solitary 
confinement — Deprivation of privileges — Additional labor — Trans- 
portation 183 



CONTENTS. 9 

CHAPTER II. 

PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES IN REFERENCE TO LABOR, FOOD, CLOTHING, DWELL- 
INGS, AND HEALTH. 

The time of labor determined by the master — The law of Geor- 
gia of 1817 — Law of South Carolina of 1740 — Mississippi — The 
time of labor in South Carolina is enormous — Bite and work — The 
argument from self-interest — Consequences of overworking — Retri- 
bution of Heaven — The food of slaves, as to quantity and quality, 
determined solely by the master — What is meant by sufficient food — 
Corn the usual food of slaves — Meat withheld — Rations of the 
United States' soldiers and state prisoners — Testimony of Rev. 
Thomas S. Clay, of Georgia — Clothing of slaves not adequate to 
comfort or decency — Provisions of different states on the subject — 
Why the slave is poorly clothed — The dwellings of slaves — Quo- 
tations on the subject — Provision for sick and aged slaves — Act of 
Georgia for December 12, 1815 — Sarah M. Grimke — George A. 
Avery — The privations of slaves continued — Dr. Channing — Moral 
character of the system Page 200 

CHAPTER III. 

CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

The punishments of slaves amount to the greatest inhumanity — 
Several specifications made — Penalties — Property of the master 
more sacred than the person of the slave — Two laws of Louisiana 
cited — Indifference to the torments of slaves — Brenard's Digest 
quoted — Decision of Judge Matthews, of Louisiana — Another de- 
cision — Shooting slaves — Uniform cruelty of American slavery — 
Mr. Whitfield quoted — Woolman — Pinckney — O'Kelly — Rice — 
President Edwards, the younger — Major Stoddard — Testimony of 
the Gradual Emancipation Society of North Carolina — Rev. J. 
Rankin — Judge Rufrin — Mr. Moore, of Virginia — Swaim, of North 
Carolina — J. C. Finley to Mr. Mahan — Mr. Thome's speech, New 
York, 1834 — Synod of Kentucky — Specimens of whipping — G. W. 
Westgate quoted — Horace Moulton — S. M. Grimke — Tortures of 
slaves — Branding, crippling, and cutting — The overseer and the 
driver — Description of a slave-dealer, by Hon. J. K. Paulding — In- 
humanity proved — Advertisements — Moral evils and actual sins 
flowing from slavery — Objections noticed — Denial of these cruel- 
ties — Dr. Fuller — Feeble logic — A serious omission — Contempt of 
marriage and all marriage relations — Evasion by all champions of 
slavery of the real point at issue — A slavery guided by justice or 
love is no slavery at all — Confession of Dr. Fuller to Dr. Way- 
land — Dr. Fuller practically an insurrectionist and an abolitionist — 
Gratifying consideration — Some improvement hoped for 218 



10 CONTENTS. 

PART IV. 

CONTRARIETY TO THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES. 
CHAPTER I. 

SLAVERY CONTRARY TO MANY SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 

Despotism of slavery considered — Quotations — Confession of 
Dr. Fuller — Declaration of Thomas Jefferson — E. C. Holland — W. 
B. Seabrook — What is a despot? — Declaration of Independence — 
Governor M'Duffie — The civil law — Its application — A sad pic- 
ture — Two slaveholders quoted — The Bible views slavery as op- 
pression — Treatment of the Hebrews — Scripture precepts — Depri- 
vation of just and righteous wages — The laborer is worthy of his 
hire — Condemnation of the capture of fugitive slaves — Hebrew 
servitude — Slaves — Laws in regard to fugitive slaves opposed to 
the Bible — Argument — Outrageous enormities — No liberty for the 
slave in the United States — Sad narrative — Constitution of the 
United States — Act of Congress, passed February 12, 1793 — Penn- 
sylvania the forum of most of the decisions respecting fugitive 
slaves — Laws of the United States and of the slave states, in re- 
gard to the capture of fugitive slaves, directly opposed to the Mo- 
saic code — A Hebrew servant, when maltreated, could claim free- 
dom — Not so with American slaves — Stealers of men in old times 
punished with death — Enormities practiced in regard to the cap- 
ture of fugitive slaves — Practical workings of the system — Out- 
line of treating runaways — Caution against running away — Pur- 
suit of runaways — Blood-hounds — Deadly weapons — Professional 
men-hunters — Advertisements — Chaining and torturing fugitive 
slaves Page 251 

CHAPTER II. 

SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 

Contrary to justice or righteousness — Proof — Contrary to the 
great law of love — The Bible cited — General statements — Keeping 
slaves for their good — The " golden rule " opposed to slavery — St. 
Augustine on Matthew vii, 12 — Cornelius a Lapide — Dr. Dod- 
dridge — No one under the influence of this rule ever made another 
a slave, nor would he continue the practice of the system under the 
guidance of the "golden rule" — The brotherhood of the human 
race — Evasion of the law of this brotherhood — A question pro- 
pounded and answered — Captives — Jesus Christ and Moses — 
Teachings of the prophets — Slavery shows no mercy to the poor — 
Quotations from Scripture — Obedience of children — Separation 
of parents and children — Narrative of Mr. Birney — A Missouri 
negro-trader — Husbands and wives — Marriage may be forbid- 
den — Two advertisements — Rev. J. H. Dickey's description of a 



CONTENTS. 11 

"drove" — Rev. A. Rankin — "Search the Scriptures" — Slavery- 
does not allow this — Duty of the slave to aim at freedom — Decision 
of Judge Ruffin Page 274 

CHAPTER III. 

SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES AND PRIVILEGES. 

Contrary to the original grant which God gave to man — God's 
charter gives no grant of property in man — Quotation from Gene- 
sis — The declaration of the Psalmist — Slavery contradicts the 
grant made by God in two ways: first, by one portion of the human 
family claiming and securing another portion of the human 
family, and, secondly, by depriving that portion of the common 
property bestowed on the whole race of mankind — The Saxon has 
no right of property in the Indian or African — God the only lawful 
despot — Slavery divides and scatters families — Slaveholders mo- 
nopolizers and robbers — Property the right of all — Slavery sinks 
the divine image of God, in which man was created, to the level of 
brutality — Passages from various parts of the Scriptures — Indirect 
attacks on God — Fighting against him — All mental improvement 
in slaves denounced by pro-slavery men — Christ died for all — John 
iii, 16 — The work of redemption antagonistic to slavery — Declara- 
tion of St. Paul — The same sacrifice made for the slave as for the 
master — Christian brethren in bonds and chains — The early Chris- 
tians opposed to the spirit and practice of slavery — Usurpation of 
divine rights — The claims of slavery equal the claims of Heaven — 
Slavery contrary to the natural equality of mankind — Bible declara- 
tions — Human equality recognized by the Bible — The ground on 
which Aristotle defended slavery — Slavery contrary to the chief 
end of man, which is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. . . .299 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

Eight reasons given for the consideration of the ten command- 
ments — Slavery a breach of the first commandment — The point 
discussed — Opposed to the second commandment — The slave can 
not worship God — Slavery encourages profanity — Proof — Violates 
the Sabbath — Does not allow the obedience of children to pa- 
rents — Reciprocal duties of parents and children despised — The 
servant and the slave — Encourages murder — Stroud quoted — 
O'Kelly on this point — Rev. John Rankin, of Tennessee — Instances 
of atrocious murders — Burning of negroes — Several examples 
cited — Slow deaths by fire common — Suicides — Lex talionis illus- 
trated — Murder by a negro — Adultery encouraged by slavery — Val- 
uable slaves — The Edmondson sisters — Process of amalgamation — 



12 CONTENTS. 

Slavery a violation of the eighth commandment — " Thou shalt not 
steal" — "Westminster catechism — Bishop Hopkins — Exposition of 
the ten commandments — Slaveholders, according to St. Paul, 
are men-stealers — The Greek word andrapodistes analyzed — Dr. 
Bloomfield's view — Analysis of the crime of theft — What consti- 
tutes theft? — Quotations from Exodus xxi, 16, Proverbs xxix, 24, 
and Psalm 1, 18 — Bishop Hopkins again — Men, being naturally 
free, are incapable of becoming goods or chattels — Judge Black- 
stone quoted — Slaveholding is robbery beyond all other robbery — 
Real slaveholders swindlers — Blackstone's Commentaries — Slavery 
is theft — African and American thieving — Hard terms — Stolen 
property — Passage from the life of William Brown — Quotations 
from Genesis and Deuteronomy — Stealers, sellers, purchasers, and 
holders of slaves, alike guilty — Penalty of the Mosaic law — Larger 
catechism of the Presbyterian Church — The Mosaic law on man- 
stealing recognized and resanctioned in the New Testament by St. 
Paul — Slavery a breach of the eighth commandment, according to 
all good interpreters — Westminster Assembly — Punishments of the 
Lord — Report on the Free People of Color of Ohio — Horrible case 
of kidnapping — Contrary to the ninth and tenth commandments, 
and against all just laws, human and divine Page 310 

CHAPTER V. 

SLAVERY CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 

The right, such as the master claims over the slave, not ac- 
knowledged by the Bible — The matter demonstrated — Slavery and 
the light diffused by Christianity at variance — Speech of Rev. 
Richard Watson, Exeter Hall, London — The spirit of Christianity 
and slaveholding — The dispositions and feelings enjoined on Chris- 
tians opposed to slavery — Christ's kingdom — The brotherhood of 
Christianity — The case of Demarara — Prayer and slavery not con- 
gruous — Quotation from " Thoughts on Slavery," by John Wes- 
ley — Two prayers given — A third — Stanza of poetry — Proceedings 
of some citizens of South Carolina against Dr. Brisbane — Slavery 
opposed to civilization and education — Remarks of Rev. William 
Bevan before the Antislavery Convention held at London, June, 
1 840 344 



PAET I. 

AMERICAN SLAVERY AND THE AFRICAN SLAVE 
TRADE CONTRASTED. 



SINFULNESS 

OF 

AMERICAN SLAVERY. 

CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

1 . We will commence this treatise by defining the system 
of slavery: 

"A slave is a person divested of the ownership of him- 
self, and conveyed, with all his powers of body and mind, 
to the proprietorship of another." 

" Slaveholding is detaining one in this condition, or keep- 
ing him subject to the laws of slavery ; and the detainer is 
the slaveholder." 

Or, a slaveholder is one who sustains the legal relation of 
master or owner of a slave. 

There are but two slaveholding powers in all countries 
where slavery exists by law — the master and the government. 
A slaveholding government is one which authorizes individ- 
uals to deprive their fellow-men of self-ownership. An in- 
dividual slaveholder is one who subjects men to the laws of 
slavery, or who voluntarily holds slaves by law. 

2. Slavery reduces men to articles of property; makes 
chattels out of free agents; converts persons into things. 

But American slavery is best defined by quoting the laws 
which authorize and protect the system. In the civil or Ro- 
man laws, slaves were held "pro nullis ; pro mortuis ; pro 
quadrupcdibus'''' — "as nothing; as dead; as quadrupeds." 

The condition of slaves, in our slaveholding states, is little 
different or better, as far as laws are concerned, than under 

15 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

the Roman laws. According to the laws of Louisiana, "a 
slave is one who is in the power of a master to whom he 
belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, 
his industry, and his labor: he can do nothing, possess 
nothing, nor acquire any thing but what must belong to his 
master." — Civil code, art. 35. There is, indeed, in theory, 
a limitation to the master's power in punishing the slave, 
yet no such limitation practically exists, or can, by law, be 
enforced. " The slave is entirely subject to the will of his 
master, who may correct or chastise him, though not with 
unusual rigor, or so as to maim or mutilate him to the dan- 
ger or loss of life, or to cause death." — Art. 173. (See 
Stroud, p. 22.) 

The cardinal principle of slavery, that the slave is not to 
be ranked among sentient beings, but among things — is an 
article of property — a chattel — obtains as undoubted law in 
all other slave states.- In South Carolina it is expressed in 
the following language: "Slaves shall be deemed, sold, 
taken, reputed, and adjudged in law to be chattels personal 
in the hands of their owners and possessors, and their 
executors, administrators, and assigns, to all intents, con- 
structions, and purposes whatever." (Stroud, p. 23.) Ab- 
solute despotism could ask no more than this. 

3. We will here set down what may be called the legal 
definition of slavery. We quote from Mr. Stroud's excel- 
lent " Sketch of the laws relating to slavery," Philadelphia, 
1837, an authority which can not be called in question. He 
treats firsi of the laws which regard the slave as property, 
and concern the relation of master and slave. Secondly, 
those laws which consider the slave as a member of civil 
society. 

First. Those laws which regard the slave as property are 
comprised under the following twelve propositions : 

" 1. The master may determine the kind, and degree, and 
time of labor, to which the slave ^may be subjected. 



INTRODUCTION. l7 

"2. The master may supply the slave with such food and 
clothing only, both as to quantity and quality, as he may 
think proper or find convenient. 

" 3. The master may, at his discretion, inflict any punish- 
ment upon the person of his slave. 

"4. All the power of the master over his slave may be 
exercised, not by himself only in person, but by any one 
whom he may depute as his agent. 

" 5. Slaves have no legal rights of property in things 
real or personal ; but whatever they may acquire belongs, 
in point of law, to their masters. 

" 6. The slave, being a personal chattel, is, at all times, 
liable to be sold absolutely, or mortgaged or leased, at the 
will of his master. 

"7. He may also be sold by process of law for the satis- 
faction of the debts of a living, or the debts and bequests 
of a deceased master, at the suit of creditors or legatees. 

"8. A slave can not be a party before a judicial tribunal, 
in any species of action, against his master, no matter how 
atrocious may have been the injury received from him. 

" 9. Slaves can not redeem themselves, nor obtain a 
change of masters, though cruel treatment mav have ren- 
dered such change necessary for their personal safety. 

"10. Slaves being objects of property, if injured by third 
persons, their owners may bring suit, and recover damages, 
for the injury. 

"11. Slaves can make no contract. 

" 12. Slavery is hereditary and perpetual." 

The laws which refer to the slave as a member of civil 
society, Mr. Stroud, p. 65, for the sake of perspicuity, ranges 
under the following propositions : 

'*■ 1. A slave can not be a witness against a white person, 
either in a civil or criminal cause. 

"2. He can not be a party to a civil suit. 

" 3. The benefits of education are withheld from the slave. 

2* 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

" 4. The means for moral and religious instruction are not 
granted to the slave ; on the contrary, the efforts of the hu- 
mane and charitable to supply these wants are discounte- 
nanced by law, 

"5. Submission is required of the slave, not to the will 
of his master only, but to that of all other white persons. 

"6. The penal codes of the slaveholding states bear much 
more severely upon slaves than upon white persons. 

" 7. Slaves are prosecuted and tried upon criminal accu- 
sations in a manner inconsistent with the lights of hu- 
manity." 

The sum of these laws will comprehend the proper de- 
scription or definition of slavery, much more clearly and 
fully than any definition, in abstract terms, can furnish. 
The legal enactments, by which alone slavery exists, will be 
the authoritative description of the slave system. To this 
we will continually refer, and by it we will be guided in the 
following chapters. 

4. The judicial decisions upholding slavery, according to 
the statutes of slavery, and which are in keeping with these 
statutes, present a true picture of the system of slavery. 
The reported cases of judicial proceedings show how the 
law is practiced, and constitute the common law of slavery. 
There are innumerable cases that might be quoted ; but at 
this stage of the discussion we will introduce only two. 

The following is a part of a case decided by Judge Cren- 
shaw: — (1 Stewart's Reports, 320.) 

"A slave is in absolute bondage; he has no civil rights, 
and can hold no property, except at the will and pleasure 
of his master. A slave is a rational being, endowed with 
understanding like the rest of mankind; and whatever he 
lawfully acquires and gains possession of, by finding or 
otherwise, is the acquirement and possession of the master. 
And in 5 Co wen's Reports f 397, the court held that a slave 
at common law could not contract matrimony, nor could the 



INTRODUCTION. 1 9 

child of a slave take by descent or purchase." (Wheeler's 
Law of Slavery, p. 7.) 

In the Supreme Court of Tennessee, in 1834, the follow- 
ing case was decided : Frederick, a slave of Colonel Patton, 
of the North Carolina line, with his master's consent, 
enlisted and fought through the war of the American Rev- 
olution. On the 8th of August, 1821, as Frederick's name 
was found in the muster-roll, a warrant was issued to Fred- 
erick, giving him the soldier's bounty of one thousand acres 
of land. The question before the Court was, whether the 
land belonged to Frederick or to his master. Judge 
Catron's decision is in these words : 

"Frederick, the slave of Colonel Patton, earned this 
warrant by his services in the continental line. What is 
earned by the slave belongs to the master, by the common 
law, the civil law, and the recognized rules of property in 
the slaveholding states of the Union. " 

Hence, the thousand acres of land were awarded, not to 
Frederick, but to the heirs of Colonel Patton. 

The matter is plain, that the legal decisions of courts, as 
well as the laws, make slaves things who can acquire or 
hold no property. 

5. The practices and workings of slavery, in its range of 
operations, correspond to the statutes and legal decisions of 
the system, so as to show the sinfulness of slavery. 

In representative republics, as in the United States, the 
laws may be safely regarded as constituting a faithful expo- 
sition of the sentiments and feelings of the body of the 
people; for laws proceed from the deliberate acts of per- 
sons of mature age, embodj'ing the intelligence, wisdom, 
justice, and humanity of the community. When cruelty 
or injustice is the spirit of the law toward a proscribed 
class — when it legalizes great outrages upon them — it neces- 
sarily will connive at greater outrages ; hence, though the 
degree of the outrage is illegal, the perpetrator will rarely be 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

convicted, and, even if convicted, will almost always be sure 
to escape punishment. This is not theory, but history. The 
legal conviction and punishment of masters and mistresses, 
for illegal outrages on their slaves, very rarely occurs ; and 
though hundreds of slaves have been murdered by their 
masters and mistresses, in the slave states, within the last 
thirty years, and the proofs of the murders unquestionable, 
yet the murderers, in all or most cases, have escaped the 
penalty of the law. 

Indeed, the slave laws are a disgrace to human nature, 
especially when considered as the laws of a people glorying 
in their freedom, honor, and magnanimity. The system of 
slavery — a system of implacable and unmitigated cruelty — 
as set forth in the laws which authorize and protect it, 
belongs to the lowest stage of barbarism. 

It is an established maxim, that no people are better than 
their laws are. In general this is true; yet there are 
exceptions in both extremes. Some are worse than their 
laws; others are better; but the body of the people must 
be of the same spirit and sentiment with their laws, except 
in the stages of transition from good to better, or from 
bad to worse. 

The establishment of slavery by laws does not make the 
system right; because God's law, which is superior to all 
laws, condemns slavery as wrong ; and God's laws can not 
be repealed by the laws of man. Is it right to steal human 
beings, or — what is the same — rob them of their liberty, 
convert them into property, treat them cruelly, because 
human laws allow or authorize this outrage? The history 
of human governments is a mere record of wrongs; and 
the progress of civilization consists principally of substitu- 
ting just and humane for barbarous and oppressive laws. 
The authority of government, in ordaining slavery, as in 
ordaining other unjust things, is a reason for using all law- 
ful means in correcting the evil. Besides, wrong done by 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

law or by society is amenable to the same retribution as 
wrong clone by individuals. 

The Scriptures frequently declare this truth. Thus. 
Psalm xciv, 20, "Shall the throne of iniquity have fellow- 
ship with thee, which frameih mischief hy a law?" So, 
also, Isaiah x, 1-4, "Woe unto them who decree unright- 
eous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have 
prescribed; to turn aside the needy from judgment, and 
to take away the right from the poor of my people, that 
widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fath- 
erless! And what will ye do in the days of visitation, 
and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom 
will ye flee for help ? and where will ye leave your glory ? 
Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and 
they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not 
turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." Persecu- 
tion for the sake of religious opinion is always perpetrated 
by law ; but this in no manner affects its moral character. 

6. There is a difference between the system of slavery 
and some who are slaveholders by law. 

Some may, according to law, become slaveholders, with- 
out their knowledge, consent, or act. These are to be dis- 
tinguished from those who voluntarily become slaveholders 
for gain or convenience. The one is guilty; the other is 
innocent. While the system of slavery, as it exists by law, 
is one of wrong, and necessarily involves sinfulness in con- 
nection with the system and inseparable from it, these two 
classes, equally slaveholders by law — the only way, in this 
country, by which a man can become a slaveholder — must 
be carefully distinguished. 

Some may become the legal owners of slaves by will or 
inheritance. Others, though convinced of the sinfulness 
of the system, may not have it in their power to set their 
slaves free, for the present, and they hold them in order to 
do them the greatest good possible. Such, certainly, can 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

not be placed in the list of transgressors or sinners ; other- 
wise, one person, by his act, can make another a sinner; or 
one can be made a sinner by the act of another ; which is 
absurd. Such employ the mere legal tenure to emancipate 
the slave, and prevent him from becoming a slave for life, 
and his posterity after him ; or he employs this legal tenure 
to do the slave all the good he can, although he can not set 
him free. 

There are others who love slavery and the laws which 
authorize and protect it. They daily strive to render that 
law more stringent. They use their power over the slave 
for their own benefit, without regard to the rights of man 
or the law of God ; and they resist the annulment of slave 
laws. 

Here we have two classes of slaveholders, but of the 
most dissimilar character. The one class acknowledge the 
wrongs and sinfulness of slavery, and do all in their power 
to do them away. The other class allow no law, human 
or divine, to interfere with the exercise of their tyrannical 
and unjust course. Between these extremes, however, 
there are many gradations of guiltiness, which, perhaps, 
can not be clearly pointed out, till the Judge of all shall 
make known the true characters of men. 

But the system of slavery, as established by law, is a 
sinful system. It is sinful in its origin, in its progress, and 
in its consequences. Like sin itself, it must be sinful, till 
the system is destroyed. If an individual would, by his 
own power and will, treat others as slaves, he must be a 
sinner of the worst class. When it is done by a state, the 
state is as chargeable with the sinfulness of the system as 
any individual can be who becomes a slaveholder by his 
own will and deed, and for his own sole benefit ; and the 
very acts inseparable from the slave system, as the depriva- 
tion of rights — the infliction of wrongs — are acts of the 
most gross, immoral character. 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

The moral delinquency is not an accident or circumstance, 
but it is inherent in the system, and belongs to its very 
nature. It is not the abuse of slavery merely, but the very 
existence of it, that is wrong; and, consequently, there is 
only one way of dealing with it, and that is, not to correct 
or amend, but to extirpate it altogether, or, in other words, 
to destroy its very roots. 

7. Most Christians consider slavery as wrong. The ex- 
ceptions to this rule are very few when sophistry is stripped 
of its garb. Indeed, the most conscientious in all ages 
have viewed the system as one that is inconsistent with the 
principles of right, as well as contrary to the word of God. 
When slavery stands forth in its proper characters, few are 
found to palliate or justify it. To have an apologist at all, 
the true ground must be changed, and a false position as- 
sumed. For instance, few are hardy enough to contend for 
stealing men, making merchandise of the stolen property, 
or for using it as such when obtained. And yet the very 
same thing is done every day, in "stealing children as soon 
as they are born ;" that is, making them slaves. For they 
might as well be stolen from Africa as seized at birth by 
law as soon as born, and made slaves. It amounts to the 
same thing in fact, depriving a free person of liberty, and 
no more than this was done, and is now every day doing, in 
the African slave-trade. 

8. There are now, however, some who maintain that 
slavery is not wrong. 

The present ground taken by the south is one of recent 
date. When the Constitution of the United States was 
adopted, there were few to plead for slavery. Now we 
find religious men — Presbyterians, Baptists, and Method- 
ists — plead for the innocence of slavery, while politicians 
are now loud and long in its praises. 

We have many Presbyterians now pleading for the inno- 
cence of slavery. The presbyteries of Hopewell, Har- 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

mony, and Charleston Union, in South Carolina, and the 
synod of Virginia, plead stoutly for the innocence of slav- 
ery. The following, from the Presbyterian Church in Pe- 
tersburg, Va., 16th of November, 1838, may be quoted as 
a specimen of the general sentiment of southern Presbyte- 
rians : 

"Whereas, the General Assembly did, in 1818, pass a 
law which contains provisions for slaves irreconcilable with 
our civil institutions, and solemnly declared slavery to be a 
sin against God — a law at once offensive and insulting to 
the whole southern community : 

"JZesolved, 1. That, as slaveholders, we can not consent 
longer to remain in connection with any Church where 
there exists a statute conferring a right upon slaves to 
arraign their masters before the judicatory of the Church, 
and that, too, for the act of selling them without their 
consent first had and obtained. 

"2. That, as the great Head of the Church has recog- 
nized the relation of master and slave, we conscientiously 
believe that slavery is not a sin against God, as declared by 
the General Assembly." 

The Rev. Mr. James Smylie, a Presbyterian minister of 
the Amite presbytery, Mississippi, in his answer to the 
Chilicothe presbytery, maintains that slavery is no sin. We 
select the following from his book: 

"When the Scriptures teach me, or when any one will 
show me that the Scriptures do teach, that slavery, or the 
relation of master and slave, is sinful, then, as a minister, 
and as a Christian, I am pledged to forsake it," p. 12. 
"If slavery be a sin, as you say, and if advertising and 
apprehending slaves, with a view to restore them to their 
master, is a direct violation of the Divine law; also, 
that the buying, selling, or holding a slave for the sake 
of gain is a heinous sin and scandal, then, verily, three- 
fourths of all the Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists, and 



INTRODUCTION". 25 

Presbyterians, in eleven states of the Union, are of the 
devil. They hold, if they do not buy and sell slaves; and, 
with few exceptions, they hesitate not to apprehend and 
restore runaway slaves, when in their power. To question, 
whether slaveholders or slave -buyers are of the devil, 
seems to me like calling in question, whether God is or is 
not a true witness ; that is, provided it is God's testimony, 
and not merely the testimony of the Chilicothe presbytery, 
that it is a heinous sin and scandal to buy, sell, or hold 
slaves," p. 13. "I have, years ago, entered seriously on 
the investigation of the question, is slavery, in itself, sinful? 
and, on examination of the Scriptures and facts, as brought 
to light by history, I have arrived at a different conclusion 
from you. I have arrived at the conclusion, that slavery 
itself is not sinful" p. 1G. "The twenty-fifth chapter of 
Leviticus clearly and unequivocally establishes the fact, that 
slavery, or bondage, was sanctioned by God himself; and 
that buying, selling, holding, and bequeathing slaves, as 
property, are regulations which were established by him- 
self," p. 21. "He [God] gave a written permit to the 
Hebrews — then the best people in the world — to buy, hold, 
and bequeath men and women to perpetual servitude," 
p. 21. "Indeed, some of the very blessings, or favors, 
promised to the faithful are the stations of masters," p. 22. 

It were easy to extend the list of pro-slavery Presbyte- 
rian authorities, although the principles of the Confession 
certainly do not favor slavery. 

Among the Baptists we can find those who plead, that 
slavery is not sin. Dr. Fuller says : 

"I do deny that slavery is a moral evil," Fuller and 
Wayland on Slavery, p. 1. "The Old Testament did 
sanction slavery," p. 3. "I undertake to show, that the 
"Bible does, most explicitly, both by precept and example, 
bear me out in my assertion — the only assertion I ever 
made — that slavery is not necessarily, and always, and 

3 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

amidst all circumstances, a sin. This is the position to be 
established ; and the entire reasoning — reasoning which, if 
the premises be true, really seems to me to commend itself 
at once to every man's conscience — is this: what God 

SANCTIONED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND PERMITTED IN THE 

New can not be sin," p. 170. Mr. Stringfellow, a distin- 
guished Baptist, in a letter published in the Religious Her- 
ald of February 4, 1841 — a Baptist paper — says: "If I am 
not greatly mistaken, I shall make it appear, that the insti- 
tution of slavery lias received, 1st, the sanction of the 
Almighty, in the patriarchal age ; 2d, that it was incorpora- 
ted into the only national constitution which ever emanated 
from God; 3d, that it was recognized, and its relative duties 
regulated by Jesus Christ, in his kingdom; and lastly, that 
it is full of mercy." Again he says: "Here [in Scripture] 
are laws that authorize the holding of men and women in 
bondage, and chastening them with the whip of the slave- 
holder, with a severity that terminates in death." He also 
declares: "The divine Lawgiver, in guarding the property 
right of slaves among his chosen people, justifies the sepa- 
ration of man and wife — father and children." 

The Charleston (S. C.) Baptist association, in a memorial 
to the Legislature of South Carolina, says : " The under- 
signed would further represent, that the said association 
does not consider that the holy Scriptures have made the 
fact of slavery a question of morals at all;" and further: 
" The right of masters to dispose of the time of their slaves 
has been distinctly recognized by the Creator of all things." 
(See Correspondence of Birney and Elmore, p. 33.) 

Again: the Edgefield (S. C.) Baptist association says: 

"Resolved, That the practical question of slavery, in a 
country where the system has obtained as a part of its 
stated policy, is settled, in the Scripture, by Jesus Christ 
and his apostles. 

"Resolved, That these uniformly recognized the relation 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

of master and slave, and enjoined on both their respective 
duties, tinder a system of servitude more degrading and 
absolute than that which obtains in our country." (Idem.) 

It is only a few years since that any Methodist was found 
to declare, that the system of slavery was not morally 
wrong. But some have recently commenced to imitate or 
follow the members of other Churches, and have waned 
from their original principles. They seem, also, to have 
fallen in with the ranks of the pro-slavery politicians, re- 
nouncing the principles of their early days. 

The first avowal of this moral heterodoxy, of any import- 
ance, are the declarations and resolutions of the South Caro- 
lina and Georgia conferences, at their sessions in the winter 
of 1837 and 1838. 

The following are the preamble and resolutions of the 
Georgia conference, passed unanimously at its session held 
at Athens, Georgia, December 13, 1837: 

"Whereas, there is a clause in the Discipline of our 
Church, which states that we are as much as ever convinced 
of the great evil of slavery ; and whereas the said clause 
has been perverted by some, and used in such a manner as 
to produce the impression that the Methodist Episcopal 
Church believed slavery to be a moral evil ; therefore, 

"1. Resolved, That it is the sense of the Georgia annual 
conference that slavery, as it exists in the United States, is 
not a moral evil. 

** 2. Resolved, That we view slavery as a civil and domes- 
tic institution, and one with which, as ministers of Christ, we 
have nothing to do, farther than to ameliorate the condition 
of the slave, by endeavoring to impart to him and his mas- 
ter the benign influence of the religion of Christ, and aiding 
both on their way to heaven." 

The South Carolina conference, at its session held in 
Columbia, South Carolina, January 10, 1838, had the fol- 
lowing action on the subject of slavery, introduced by the 



28 INTRODUCTION. 

Rev. W. Martin. The proceedings are given as published 
in the Southern Christian Advocate: 

"Brother Donelly approved of the doctrine of the resolu- 
tions, but remarked on the inconsistency of any action of 
conference on a subject winch was avowed to be foreign 
from its province. He also brought to view the mischievous 
use which might be made of it in some parts of the coun- 
try, where some sought to take up the time, and pervert the 
business of conference, with debates of abolition. Brother 
W. Capers expressed a conviction that the sentiment of the 
resolution was universally held, not only by the ministers 
of this conference, but of the ivhole south. Still, he acknowl- 
edged the force of the remark made by brother Donelly, 
and would willingly do nothing which might ever be per- 
verted to a pretext for the mischievous discussions which 
were going on in another quarter. The doctrine, and the 
only true doctrine, was, 'It belongs to Ccesar, and not to 
the Church.' But the subject, right or wrong, had got 
into the Church. He would suggest to the mover of these 
resolutions, whether it might not be better, all things con- 
sidered, to adopt the following substitute : 

" 'Whereas, we hold that the subject of slavery, in the 
United States, is not one proper for the action of the 
Church, but is exclusively appropriate to the civil authori- 
ties; therefore, 

" 'Resolved, That this conference will not intermeddle with 
it, farther than to express our regret that it has ever been 
introduced, in any form, into any one of the judicatures of 
the Church.' 

" Brother Martin accepted the substitute. Brother Betts 
asked whether the substitute was intended as implying that 
slavery, as it exists among us, ivas not a moral evil. He 
understood it as equivalent to such a declaration. Brother 
Capers explained, that his intention ivas to convey that senti- 
ment fully and unequivocally; and that he had chosen the 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

form of substitute for the purpose, not only of reproving 
some wrong doings at the north, but with reference, also, to 
the General conference. If slavery were a moral evil [that 
is, sinful] the Church would be bound to take cognizance of 
it; but our affirmation is that it is not a matter for her 
jurisdiction, but is exclusively appropriate to the civil gov- 
ernment, and, of course, not sinful. The substitute was 
then unanimously adopted." 

After the South Carolina and Georgia conferences, the 
most prominent advocate for slavery is the Rev. Augustus 
B. Longstreet, LL. D., in an octavo pamphlet of forty- 
seven pages, addressed to Doctors Durbin, Bangs, Peck, and 
Elliott, Charleston, South Carolina, 1845. We select from 
this pamphlet the following astounding sentiments : 

"Only convince us that God forbids the relationship of 
master and slave — nay, only give us a satisfactory answer 
to the arguments which we adduce from Scripture to show 
that he sanctions it — and all the wounds of our Church 
will be healed in an instant," p. 5. " What you believe 
to be sinful, we believe to be perfectly innocent," p. G. 
" It [Paul's Epistle to Philemon] recognizes the relation of 
master and slave as perfectly innocent," p. 9. 

In Dr. Longs treet's letter to Dr. Durbin, in the Southern 
Christian Advocate of December 26, 1845, he peremptorily 
denies the sinfulness of slavery. He says, "A brother and 
myself had referred to the Scriptures to prove that slavery 
w r as no sin." 

The following is the declared opinion of Rev. E. D. 
Simms, of Randolph Macon College: (See Barnes, p. 29.) 

" These extracts from holy writ unequivocally assert the 
right of property in slaves, together with the usual inci- 
dents of that light, such as the power of acquisition and 
disposition in various ways, according to municipal regula- 
tions. The right to buy or sell, and to transmit to children 
by way of inheritance, is clearly stated. The only restric- 



30 INTRODUCTION. 

tion on the subject, is in reference to the market in which 
slaves or bondmen were to be purchased. 

"Upon the whole, then, whether we consult the Jewish 
polity, instituted by God himself, or the uniform opinion 
and practice of mankind in all ages of the world, or the 
injunctions of the ISew Testament and the moral law, we 
are brought to the conclusion that slavery is not immoral. 
Having established the point, that the first African slaves 
were legally brought into bondage, the riffht to detain their 
children in bondage follows as an indispensable consequence. 

"Thus we see that the slavery which exists in America 
was founded in right" 

Within the last few years the innocence of the system of 
slavery has been asserted, with great earnestness, by south- 
ern statesmen. We will give a few specimens. 

After the Southampton insurrection in 1831, the eyes of 
the southern people were, for a short while, opened to the 
horrors of slavery. Hence, a strong abolition party arose 
in Virginia. Slavery was freely discussed in the Legislature 
of that state. At this time, to calm the consciences of 
slaveholders, Thomas R. Dew, a professor in William and 
Mary College, wrote a pamphlet in favor of slavery, and 
" boldly grappled with the abolitionists on the great ques- 
tion." Mr. Dew maintained that the system of slavery 
was not sinful. He also appealed to the cupidity of the 
people. He shows that negro slaves are the great staple 
of Virginia, inasmuch as " upward of six thousand are 
yearly exported to other states." So that Virginia receives 
from the sale of human beings not less than $1,200,000 
every year. In the professor's own words, " Virginia is, in 
fact, a negro-raising state for other states. She produces 
enough for her own supply, and six thousand [annually] for 
sale." He also declares "the slaves in Virginia multiply 
more rapidly than in most of the southern states ; the Vir- 
ginians can raise them cheaper than they can buy them ; in 



INTRODUCTION. 31 

fact, it is one of their greatest sources of profit." Mr. Dew 
first published in the American Quarterly,- and then, with 
much enlargement, in a pamphlet, one hundred and thirty- 
three large pages, in Richmond. (See Bacon on Slavery, 
p. 94.) 

Mr. M'Duffie, Governor of South Carolina, in his message 
to the Legislature in 1834, declares as follows: 

"No human institution, in my opinion, is more manifestly 
consistent with the will of God than domestic slavery, and 
no one of his ordinances is written in more legible charac- 
ters than that which consigns the African race to this condi- 
tion, as more conducive to their own happiness than any 
other of which they are susceptible. 

"Domestic slavery, therefore, instead of being a political 
evil, is the corner-stone of our republican edifice. No 
patriot, who justly estimates our privileges, will tolerate the 
idea of emancipation at any period, however remote, or on 
any conditions of pecuniary advantage, however favorable. 
I would as soon open a negotiation for selling the liberty of 
the state at once, as of making any stipulations for the 
ultimate emancipation of our slaves. So deep is my con- 
viction on this subject, that, if I were doomed to die imme- 
diately after recording these sentiments, I could say, in all 
sincerity, and under all the sanctions of Christianity and 
patriotism, ' God forbid that my descendants, in the remot- 
est generations, should live in any other than a community 
having the institution of domestic slavery, as it existed 
among the patriarchs of the primitive Church, and in all 
the states of antiquity.' " (See Quarterly Antislavery Mag- 
azine for January, 1836, p. 208.) 

Mr. Calhoun is reported, in the National Intelligencer, as 
having delivered, on the 10th of January, 1836 or 1837, in 
the senate, these words: 

"Many in the south once believed that it [slavery] was a 
moral and political evil. That folly and delusion are gone. 



32 INTRODUCTION. 

We see it now in its true light, and regard it as the most 
safe and stable basis for free institutions in the world." 

Mr. Hammond, on February 1, 1836, declared, in Con- 
gress : 

"I do firmly believe that domestic slavery, regulated as 
ours is, produces the highest-toned, the purest, the best 
organization of society that has ever existed on the face of 
the earth." 

The Hon. Whitemarsh B. Seabrook, President of the 
Agricultural Society of St. John's, Colleton, in his essay 
on the management of slaves, published by order of the 
Society, Charleston, 1834, declares as follows: (See Anti- 
slavery Quarterly for 1836, p. 123.) 

"In the first place, I must be permitted to say, that, in 
the judgment of my fellow-citizens, slavery is not incon- 
sistent with the laws of nature, or of God. The Bible 
informs us, that it was established and sanctioned by Divine 
authority among even the elects of heaven ; and the history 
of every age and country attests that personal servitude has 
been the lot of a considerable portion of mankind. I be- 
lieve, moreover, that, successfully to carry on the great 
business of the world, slavery, in some form, is as necessary 
as the division of labor itself. 

" As slavery exists in South Carolina, the action of the 
citizens should rigidly conform to that state of things. If 
abstract opinions of the rights of man are allowed in any 
instance to modify the police system of a plantation, the 
authority of the master, and the value of his estate, will be 
as certainly impaired, as that the peace of the blacks them- 
selves will be injuriously affected. Whoever believes slavery 
to be immoral or illegal, and, under that belief, frames a 
code of laws for the government of his people, is practically 
an enemy of the state. Such a person is utterly unfit to 
fulfill the obligation of his trust, and the most acceptable 
service he could render his fellow-citizens, would be to 



INTRODUCTION. 33 

emigrate with his property to the land of the Tappans and 
the Garrisons." 

9. Although our purpose is to survey the moral character 
of slavery, yet we may not overlook those civil or political 
features of the system which involve morals or right princi- 
ples. 

We transcribe the following from Dr. Wavland's second 
letter to Dr. Fuller : " The terms moral evil may be used to 
designate two ideas widely dissimilar from each other, and 
depending upon entirely different principles. In the one 
sense, it means wrong — the violation of the relations which 
exist between the parties — the transgression of a moral law 
of God. In the other sense, it means the personal guilt 
which attaches to the being who does the wrong, violates 
the obligation, or transgresses the law. In the first sense, 
moral evil depends upon the immutable relations which God 
has established between his moral creatures. In the second 
sense, meaning personal guilt, it depends upon the light, the 
knowledge of duty, means of obtaining information on the 
subject, and may be different in different persons and at 
different times. In the first sense, when we affirm that 
slavery is not a moral evil, we affirm that to hold a man in 
slavery, as it has been above explained, is right, that it 
violates no law of God, and is at variance with no moral 
relation existing between man and man." 

The distinction given above has much of truth in it. 
Nevertheless, it needs to be duly guarded, so that what may 
be ascribed to pardonable ignorance or prejudice, may not 
be properly attributed to a culpable ignorance which has 
no palliation in the word of God. And Ave fear Dr. Way- 
land, in his answer to Fuller, gives a degree of encourage- 
ment to a very large class of slaveholders to continue in 
willful ignorance, or to be governed by mere customs and 
usages, which are most clearly repugnant to the word of 
God. And it is most true, that whatever of palliation may 



34 INTRODUCTION. 

be admitted on behalf of the prejudiced slaveholder, the 
grossly sinful and immoral character of slavery can receive 
no palliation so as to strip it of its essential sinfulness, which 
it inherently possesses, and is not susceptible of reform, any 
more than murder, theft, or lying, in their true character- 
istics, can be reformed. The reformation of slavery would 
be its destruction. 

10. We will test the character of slavery by the stand- 
ard of holy Scripture. 

As we treat of slavery only in its moral character, the 
standard by which we are to judge of its moral qualities is 
the moral laws of God as contained in holy Scripture, for- 
bidding all sin and enjoining every duty relating to God and 
man. 

The following are the reasons why we bring slavery to 
the test of holy Scripture : 

(1.) The Bible is the standard of morals, and to this 
standard every other authority should be subservient. 

(2.) Slavery is a subject on which the Bible has legis- 
lated, and therefore it is most fit to ascertain what are its 
decisions on the subject. 

(3.) Hence there is no other standard than the Bible, by 
which the question whether slavery is right or wrong can be 
denied. 

(4.) Any other standard than Scripture can never effect 
a reform on the subject of slavery. 

(5.) The defenders of slavery now claim the authority of 
the Bible in favor of slavery, and therefore it is proper 
to meet them on this ground. (See Barnes on Slavery, 
pp. 21-37.) 

As our discussion is in reference to the moral character of 
slavery, and especially as it concerns Christians as Chris- 
tians, the supreme rule of duty must be the moral law of 
God as contained in Scripture, but not the civil law. If the 
civil law were the supreme rule, it would not admit the 



INTRODUCTION. 35 

moral law to have any authority, further than it might be 
subservient to the civil law. Still it may be a point too nice 
for decision here, how far the obligations of the civil code 
may be relaxed by the supreme law of God. This we will 
not just now attempt to do. But, as we are addressing the 
consciences of men on Christian principles, we must main- 
tain the complete supremacy of God's laws over all pre- 
scriptions of men. The true doctrine is that none, whether 
a majority or minority in the state, have any right to trample 
on the divine, or natural rights of others, in any way. If 
they do, they are accountable to God for the abuse of their 
power, and will be punished for this abuse here or hereafter. 
Nations shall be punished as nations, in this world only, and 
individuals as individuals, both in this world and the world 
to come. 

11. It may be proper to inquire here, what persons are 
included under the denomination of slaves. 

In an act of Maryland in the year 1663, chapter 30, it is 
declared, "All negroes or other slaves within the province, 
and all negroes and other slaves to be hereafter imported 
into the province, shall serve durante vita, [during life;"] 
and all children born of any negro or other slave, shall be 
slaves as their fathers were for the term of their lives." 
And all children of white free women and negro slaves, 
were also doomed to slavery, although this clause was sub- 
sequently repealed. The doctrine that " •partus sequitur 
patrem " — the offspring follows the condition of the father — 
obtained in the province of Maryland till the year 1699 
or 1700. 

In the year 1*715 the following law was passed in Mary- 
land: "All negroes and other slaves already imported or 
hereafter to be imported into this province, and all children 
now born, and hereafter to be born, of such negroes and 
slaves, shall be slaves during their natural lives." Thus was 
the maxim of the civil law — "partus sequitur ventrcm"—* 



30 INTRODUCTION. 

introduced, and the condition of the mother, from that day 
up to the present time, has continued to determine the fate 
of the child. This barbarous and heathen maxim of the 
civil law — the genuine and degrading principle of slavery, 
placing the slave on a level with the brute animals — prevails 
universally in the slave states. 

The following law of South Carolina has been adopted, 
in substance, by the other slave states : " All negroes, In- 
dians — free Indians in amity with this government, and 
negroes, mulattoes, and mestizoes who are now free ex- 
cepted — mulattoes, or mestizoes, who now are, or shall here- 
after be, in this province, and all their issue and offspring, 
born or to be born, shall be and they are hereby declared 
to be and remain forever hereafter absolute slaves, and shall 
follow the condition of the mother." By this law, any 
person whose maternal ancestor, even in the remotest dis- 
tance, can be shown to have been a negro, or an Indian, or 
a mulatto, or mestizo, not free at the date of the law, 
although the paternal ancestor at each successive generation 
may have been a white free man, is declared to be the sub- 
ject of perpetual slavery. This is a degree of cruelty and 
avarice unknown in any other civilized country. 

The following are the distinctions usually known among 
the mixed races: 1. The mulattoes, derived from the inter- 
mixtures of the whites and negroes. 2. The terceroons, 
being three-fourths white, produced from a white and mu- 
latto. 3. The quadroons, produced from a white and a ter- 
ceroon, being seven-eighths white. 4. The quintroons, being 
fifteen-sixteenths white, who owe their origin to a white and 
a quadroon. This is the last gradation, there being no 
sensible difference between them and the whites, either in 
color or features. Yet even these, and their descendants to 
the remotest generations, are deemed slaves. And the 
advertisements for runaways sometimes note that the run- 
away has sometimes been taken for a white man. Very 



INTRODUCTION. 37 

many of the slaves of the present day are properly white 
persons. And as nearly all the colored slaves are the 
children of white fathers, a very large number of the slaves 
of the south are the children, grandchildren, or descend- 
ants of these white masters, who have continued, generation 
after generation, to enslave their own progeny and the 
progeny of their own fathers, grandfathers, and remote an- 
cestors ! 

Indians, too, may be held as slaves ; but the cases of 
such are now so few, that, for our purpose, it is unnecessary 
to take this class of slaves into the account. 

By the laws of many of the slave states, persons now 
free may become slaves. In Virginia, "if any emancipated 
slave, infants excepted, shall remain within the state more 
than twelve months after his or her right to freedom shall 
have accrued, he or she shall forfeit all such right, and may 
be apprehended and sold by the overseers of the poor for 
the benefit of the literary fund." In Georgia, a penalty of 
$100 is incurred by an}' free person of color for coming into 
the state; and "upon failure to pay the same within the 
time prescribed in the sentence, etc., he, she, or they shall 
be liable to be sold by public outcry as a slave." In Mis- 
sissippi, every negro or mulatto found within the state, and 
not having the ability to prove himself entitled to freedom, 
may be sold, by order of the court, as a slave. 

12. The present ground of the south is very different 
from what it was at the time of the American Revolution, 
and many years after. Few, if any, were then found to 
apologize for, much less maintain slavery. Neither the pul- 
pit nor the press had any arguments to adduce for enslaving 
men. But the evil practice, in time, produced the justifying 
theories of recent years. Now grave divines teach that 
there is nothing immoral in enslaving men. That is, they 
may be stolen, or robbed, deprived of ail their just rights, 
and unjustly punished with many grievous wrongs; and all 

4 



38 INTRODUCTION. 

this has no moral evil in it ! Times are changed, an d mu _ 
table human beings change with the evil practices. Yet 
the truth remains, and will yet revolutionize the evil maxims 
and customs of the times. 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 39 



CHAPTER II. 

MORAL IDENTITY OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 

1. American slavery is morally wrong or sinful in its 
origin — the African slave-trade; and this wrong is still con- 
tinued in maintaining the present system, and is inseparable 
from it. 

The African slave-trade has been pronounced piracy by 
the United States, and the greater part of the civilized 
world. And piracy, because of its immoral and sinful 
character, is one of the most atrocious systems in the world. 
Therefore, the African slave-trade is highly immoral, in all 
its leading characteristics. Hence, it is pronounced a capi- 
tal crime — the same with murder in the first degree, or high 
treason, because it is punished with the greatest penalty, 
even that of death. 

Now, it can be shown that American slavery partakes of 
atrocities similar or equal to those of the African slave- 
trade ; and it must, therefore, receive the same sentence of 
condemnation. It is not necessary, in order to arrive at 
this conclusion, that we can find all the evils of the slave- 
trade, or those even in the same degree, in the system of 
American slavery. It is sufficient that we find enough to 
show a clear characteristic identity, whether we find the 
same number of atrocities, or find them in a greater or less 
degree. 

2. A very brief survey of the origin of the trade may 
not be amiss. 

Long before the discovery of America, the celebrated 
Portuguese navigator, Anthony Gonzales, in exploring the 
coast of Africa, had seized and carried home with him some 
Moors. These, however, Prince Henry, of Portugal, imme- 
diately ordered to be returned to their country. As an 
expression of gratitude, the Moors sent over to Portugal ten 



40 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

blacks and a quantity of gold. This gave rise to the traf- 
fic in slaves by the Portuguese, and led to their African 
discoveries. 

But, while Portugal became the importers in the trade, 
Spain soon partook of the system in purchasing from the 
Portuguese. Hence, both Portuguese and Spaniards, by 
their home slaves, were prepared to introduce the system 
into America. 

In 1502 some slaves were taken to Hispaniola. In 1511 
Ferdinand the Catholic allowed a large importation. But 
these were private and partial speculations. Charles V, in 
151V, however, being pressed on the one hand by the de- 
mand for labor in the American settlements, and on the 
other by Las Casas and others, who pleaded that the Afri- 
cans should be introduced into America to relieve the 
Indians from slavery, granted to one of the Flemish court- 
iers the exclusive privilege of importing four thousand 
blacks to the West Indies. The Fleming sold his privilege 
for 25,000 ducats, or about 825,000, to some Genoese 
merchants, who organized a regular slave-trade between 
Africa and America. As the European settlements in 
America increased and extended, the demand for slaves 
also increased ; and all European nations, who had colonies 
in America, shared in the slave-trade. 

It was about 1551 that the English began trading to 
Guinea; at first for gold and elephants' teeth, but soon 
after for men. In 1556 Sir John Hawkins sailed with two 
ships to Cape Verd, where he sent eighty men on shore to 
catch negroes. But the natives flying, they fell farther 
down, and Mr. Hawkins set his men on shore to "burn 
their towns and take the inhabitants." But they were 
repulsed by the natives, and lost seven men, and took only 
ten negroes. But he continued his depredations, and suc- 
ceeded in obtaining a cargo, which he sold in the West In- 
dies. Shortly after the trade set in for the British colonies. 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 41 

Even then, this traffic in human beings smote the con- 
sciences of many of those concerned in it. Charles V 
seems to have repented of the countenance which he gave 
to this wicked and sinful procedure. Pope Leo X, his co- 
temporary, denounced the system, and declared "that not 
only the Christian religion, but nature itself, cried out 
against a state of slavery." Louis XIII, of France, was 
much troubled in conscience about the traffic in slaves ; but 
his scruples were allayed by the argument, that it furnished 
an opportunity to convert them to Christianity. Queen 
Elizabeth, who, deceived by Sir John Hawkins, cautioned 
him not to carry the Africans to America without their 
consent, said "it would be detestable, and would call down 
the vengeance of Heaven on the undertaking." 

But, notwithstanding these early scruples, the Christians 
of Europe entered largely into the profitable commerce, 
wicked as it was. And the Christians of America received 
the stolen goods, and, in time, commenced the work of 
importation too. The trade was so lucrative, that the 
minds of the traders became so blunted to the feelings of 
justice, and so extensively did this spread, that it became a 
common branch of trade by the Christian nations of Europe 
and America. 

3. In order to have a correct idea of the African slave- 
trade, we must consider in what manner slaves are procured 
in Africa, how they are conveyed to America, and how 
they are disposed of and treated when they arrive. 

(1.) How are the slaves procured in Africa? The fol- 
lowing seem to be the modes by which the slaves were pro- 
cured. Some were procured by the fraud of the white 
Christians. Captains of ships, from time to time, have in- 
vited negroes to come on board, and then seized them and 
carried them away. 

But they were mostly, after the frauds became unsuc- 
cessful, procured by force by the whites. The Christians 

4* 



42 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

landing on their coasts, seized as many as they found — 
men, women, and children — and transported them to 
America. 

When force and fraud had done their best, in the work 
of enslaving, the Europeans excited the Africans to make 
war on each other, and to sell their prisoners. Until then, 
it is said, they seldom had wars, but were, in general, quiet 
and peaceable; but the white man first taught them drunk- 
enness and avarice, and then hired them to sell one another. 
By this means kings sell their own subjects, often having 
taken them by surprise. Others make depredations on the 
territories of others, and take the people, and sell them to 
the whites. 

Some of the slaves purchased were stolen. "Many little 
blacks, of both sexes, are stolen away by their neighbors, 
when found abroad in the road, or in the woods, or else in 
the cornfields, at the time of year when their parents keep 
them there all day, to scare away the devouring birds." 

Thus, the slaves were procured in these four ways: 
1. By fraud of the Christians, who decoyed them, and 
then took them away; 2. By force, when they seized 
them in their own territories, then took them away, and 
sold them; 3. The whites purchased those that had been 
taken captives by war; 4. Or they purchased those who 
were stolen by others. 

Can we say, that no moral turpitude attaches to those 
who engage in the enormities which take place in procuring 
slaves in Africa? Is not that man made morally worse, 
who is induced to become a tiger to his species'? or who, 
instigated by avarice, lies in wait in the market to seize his 
fellow-man? Is there no injustice, where the prince seizes 
his innocent subjects, and sells them for slaves? Does no 
crime attach to those who accuse others falsely, or who 
multiply crimes for the sake of the profit of the punish- 
ment? Now, if these things are so, how can the very same 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 43 

thing, though done in a different manner, be innocent in 
America? The act done, both in America and in Africa, 
is, to seize an innocent person, by force, fraud, or law, 
deprive him of his liberty, and sell him for a slave. 
Wherein does the American slave-breeding, the sales by the 
master, the purchasers of these, the barracoons of the 
District of Columbia, of Virginia, and Maryland, the slave 
gangs by land or the same by sea, the auctions, parents 
selling their children, grandchildren, brothers, parting of 
parents and children, husband and wife, the seizure, and 
advertising, and sale of free negroes, and all the other inde- 
scribable and undescribed enormities of the system — we ask, 
wherein do the sins of the capture, detention, and sales of 
Africa exceed the sins of Christian America, which, with 
its Bibles, churches, Christians, army, navy, police, laws, 
usages, and habits, systematically, deliberately, openly, and 
unblushingly sustains the present system of slavery? Let 
conscience and an enlightened judgment decide the question. 
(2.) Their passage across the Atlantic. This is the 
noted "middle passage." When they are brought down 
to the African shore to be sold, the white surgeons exam- 
ine them, mostly naked, women and men, without any dis- 
tinction. Those approved are set apart by themselves. A 
hot iron marks them with the arms or name of the com- 
pany to which they belong. They are then stowed away in 
the ships, naked, men and women together, and crowded into 
as little room as possible, and most of them shackled. Many 
die in the passage. Many more die at the different islands, 
in what is called the seasoning. Thus about from one-fifth to 
one-third die in the passage or by the seasoning. And do 
those experience no corruption of their nature, or become 
chargeable with no violation of rights, who engage in this 
traffic? and can their hearts be otherwise than hardened, 
who are familiar with the tears and groans of innocent stran- 
gers, when torn from their country, and who see them on 



44 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

board their vessels, in a state of suffocation, and in the 
agonies of despair? and how can the American slaveholder 
be engaged in the same or similar acts, connected with the 
commerce in slaves in neighborhoods and between the states? 

(3.) When the vessels arrive at their destined port, the 
negroes are again exposed, naked, for the most part, to 
the eyes of all that flock together, and the examination of 
purchasers. The slave markets arc very like cattle markets. 
The negroes are there examined like a horse, as to the sound- 
ness of limb and capabilities for toil. They are exposed to 
the competitions of purchasers, sold to the highest bidder, 
and turned over to oppressive labor, under the excitement 
of the whip. 

In tins traffic parents and children, husbands and wives 
are separated without the least scruple; and they and 
their offspring are destined to a cruel bondage to endless 
ages. 

Now, follow these, and see them laboring for the benefit 
of those to whom they are under no obligation, by any law, 
natural or divine, to obey. If they disobey the commands 
of their purchasers, however weary, feeble, or indisposed, 
they are subject to corporeal punishment, and, if forcibly 
resisting them, to death. Their spirits must be broken and 
subdued. They are subject to such individual persecution 
as anger, malice, or any bad passion may suggest : hence the 
whip, the chain, the iron collar, and the various modes of 
private torture; and though these cruelties may be against 
even the slave laws, as they can not be witnessed, they must 
be suffered without redress ; and finally, their innocent off- 
spring are subject to the same treatment. And can all this 
be done without sin? and surely it is done constantly in 
practical American slavery. And who can show the differ- 
ence, in reality, between this and the African slave-trade, 
except that some of the modes of doing the one may be 
more cruel than those employed in another? The distinc- 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TKA.DE AND SLAVERY. 45 

tion is something like what occurs in ivillful murder : some 
may kill at once, by one blow, or the discharge of a rifle; 
while another may, in a more inhuman way, really butcher 
his victim ; but in both cases it is murder. 

A member of Congress for Massachusetts thus describes 
the home traffic: 

" The number of slaves annually sold from the more north- 
ern slave states to the south-west is believed to be not less 
than forty thousand, yielding — as they are assorted lots — 
$25,000,000. The sale of forty thousand men, women, and 
children is easily spoken of. It is dispatched in a period. 
But what an untold and indescribable aggregation and com- 
plication of wretchedness does it represent ! Each of those 
forty thousand was a father or mother, brother or sister, hus- 
band or wife, with heart-strings to be wrung by separation 
from kindred, and all that from infancy had been loved. 
The foreign slave-trade is infamy unredeemed. He who 
sells or buys a negro to be carried from Guinea to Louisiana 
is a pirate, by the law of the civilized nations. When Ave 
catch him we hang him, and his name, being that of the 
wicked, rots. What is the difference between the man who 
sells from a Guinea barracoon and from a Virginia planta- 
tion? What is the difference between the master of the 
slave-ship and the driver of the slave-caravan ? What is 
the difference to the poor, outcast sufferer, whether he is 
transported by sea or land ? He is spared the terrible tor- 
tures of the middle passage ; but the hardships are extreme 
under the convoy of the land-pirate, and a large per centage 
of deaths take place. Compared with the savage Guinea 
native, the Virginia negro is a being of sensibility and 
refinement. His domestic affections are more human. His 
home — harsh home as it has been — is dearer. How is it, 
that the nation, so proudly and talkatively virtuous about 
the foreign slave-trade, is so easy and content with the 
domestic?" 



46 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

We may next consider more particularly the traits of 
character common to the African slave-trade and the pres- 
ent system of American slavery. 

4. The present system of American slavery reduces free 
persons to slavery. We give, as instances, the three follow- 
ing cases: 

(1.) Children are constantly reduced to slavery; and the 
children of American slaves are just as innocent as the 
children of native Africans. We maintain, then, that the 
enslaving of children, whether those of slaves or of free 
persons, is not one whit better than the enslavement of 
Africans by the slave-trade. It is true, the mode of 
accomplishing it may be different, but the wrong inflicted 
on the sufferer is the same. The arguments against this 
enslaving of children, whether they are the children of 
slaves or others, are reserved for the next chapter. 

(2.) Many free persons, by the operation of the slave 
laws, are reduced to a state of slavery. 

In consequence of rejecting the evidence of colored per- 
sons, kidnapping is easy and even common, notwithstanding 
severe penalties may be enacted against it. In the two 
years previous to 1827 more than thirty free colored per- 
sons, mostly children, were kidnapped in the city of Phila- 
delphia, and carried away south. Five of these, at great 
expense and difficulty, have been restored to their friends. 
The others were never restored to freedom. Thus, man- 
stealing is a branch of the present system of slavery. 

(3.) Many manumitted persons are re-enslaved by the 
action of the slave laws. 

Bv the laws of several of the slaveholdinsf states manu- 
mitted and other free persons of color may be arrested, 
and if documentary evidence of their freedom be not pro- 
duced, they are thrown into prison, and advertised as runa • 
ways. Should no one prove ownership, within a limited 
time, the jailer is directed to sell them to the highest bidder, 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 47 

in order to pay the jail fees. Thus the freeman and his 
posterity are doomed forever to hopeless bondage. 

"Free Negroes. — The Legislature of Alabama have 
passed an act, prescribing, that every free person of color 
arriving in that state, on board a vessel as cook, steward, 
mariner, or in any other employment, shall be immediately 
lodged in prison, and detained till the departure of said 
vessel, when the captain thereof shall be bound, under a 
heavy penalty, to take him away. If any free person of 
color, thus sent away, shall return, he or she shall receive 
thirty-nine lashes ; and if found within the state twenty days 
after such punishment, he or she shall be sold as a slave for 
any term not exceeding one year. The captain of any vessel, 
in which such free person of color shall arrive, shall give 
security in the sum of $2,000, that he will take away the 
said free person of color. The sixth section makes it lawful 
for any person to seize, and make a slave for life, to his own 
use, any free person of color who may come into the state 
of Alabama after the first day of February, 1842; provi- 
ded this section shall not take effect till the first day of 
August next. The seventh section makes it lawful for any 
person to seize upon and make a slave for life any free per- 
son of color who may be found in the state of Alabama 
after the passage of this act, and who shall have come into 
the state since its passage. Approved February 2, 1839." 
(Lannaman.) 

(4.) Any one who will take the pains to examine the ad- 
vertisements in the southern papers, will see scores of no- 
tices which show that the process of enslaving manumitted 
persons is conducted openly, under the protection and by 
the authority of law. 

Thus, as the African slave-trade constantly reduces inno- 
cent free persons to slavery, and assumes its piratical and 
felonious character from this act, so the system of Ameri- 
can slavery, by enslaving the children of slaves, and free 



48 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

persons of color, and by re-enslaving manumitted persons, 
must also be piratical and felonious as to moral character. 
The injustice in the one case is as great as the other. And 
he or she who voluntarily enslaves innocent children must 
rank with the man-stealer, and the trafficker in the African 
slave-trade. 

5. Slave-raising is a notable source of slavery, and is a 
substitute for the African slave-trade. 

As this is properly rather a delicate subject, we will hear 
what southern men themselves have to say on it, and what, 
too, they have said publicly, and has been printed. 

Judge Upshur, in 1829, in the Virginia Convention, said: 
"The value of slaves as an article of property depends 
much on the state of the market abroad ; nothing is more 
fluctuating than the value of slaves. A late law of Louis- 
iana reduced their value twenty-five per cent. If it be our 
lot, as I trust it will be, to acquire Texas, their price will 
rise again." 

Mr. Mercer, in 1829, in the Convention, said : "The tables 
of the natural growth of the slave population demonstrate, 
when compared with the increase of its numbers in the 
commonwealth for twenty years past, that an annual rev- 
enue of not less than a million and a half of dollars is 
derived from the exportation of a part of the population." 
(Debates, p. 199.) 

Hon. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, in his speech before the 
Colonization Society, in 1829, says: "It is believed that 
no where in the farming portion of the United States would 
slave labor be generally employed, if the proprietor were 
not tempted to raise slaves by the high price of the south- 
ern market, which keeps it up in his own." 

Mr. Gholson, of Virginia, in his speech in the Legislature 
of that state, January 18, 1831, said: "It has always — per- 
haps erroneously — been considered by steady and old-fash- 
ioned people, that the owner of land had a reasonable right 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 49 

to its annual profits, the owner of orchards to their annual 
fruits, the owner of breed mares to their product, and the 
owner of female slaves to their increase. The legal maxim 
of partus sequitur vcntrem, is coeval with the existence of 
the rights of property itself, and is founded in wisdom and 
justice. It is on the justice and inviolability of this maxim 
that the master foregoes the service of the female slave, has 
her nursed and attended during the period of her gestation, 
and raises the helpless infant offspring. The value of the 
property justifies the expense; and I do not hesitate to say, 
that in its increase consists much of our wealth." 

Hon. J. M. Randolph, of Virginia, in his speech before 
the Legislature, in 1832, said, concerning the number sold 
out of Virginia to the more southern states, " The exporta- 
tion has averaged eiu-ht thousand five hundred for the last 
twenty years. Forty years ago, the whites exceeded the 
colored twenty-five thousand ; the colored now exceed the 
whites eighty-one thousand: and these results, too, during' 
an exportation of near two hundred and sixty thousand 
slaves since the year 1790, now perhaps the fruitful progen- 
itors of half a million in other states. It is a practice, and 
an increasing practice, to rear slaves for market. How can 
an honorable mind, a patriot, and a lover of his country, 
bear to see this ancient dominion converted into one grand 

o 

menagerie, where men are to be reared for market, like 
oxen for the shambles?" 

Professor Dew, in his review of the debate in the Vir- 
ginia Legislature, 1831-32, says, p. 49, "From all the in- 
formation we can obtain, we have no hesitation in saying that 
upward of six thousand [slaves] are yearly exported [from 
Virginia] to other states." Again, p. 01, " The six thousand 
slaves which Virginia annually sends off to the south are a 
source of wealth to Virginia." Again, p. 120, "A full 
equivalent being thus left in the place of the slave, this 
emigration becomes an advantage to the state, and does not 

5 



50 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

check the black population as much as, at first view, we 
might imagine — because it furnishes every inducement to 
the master to attend to the negroes, to encourage breeding, 
and to cause the greatest number possible to be raised. 
Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising state for other states." 

The following is from Niles' Weekly Register, published 
at Baltimore, Md., vol. 35, p. 4 : " Dealing in slaves has be- 
come a large business ; establishments are made in several 
places in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold like 
cattle ; these places of deposit are strongly built, and well 
supplied with thumb-screws and gags, and ornamented with 
cow-skins and other whips, oftentimes bloody." 

The editor of the Virginia Times, published in Wheeling, 
in 183G, said : " We have heard intelligent men estimate the 
number of slaves exported from Virginia within the last 
twelve months, at one hundred and twenty thousand — each 
slave averaging at least $G00 — making an aggregate of 
^72,000,000. Of the number of slaves exported, not more 
than one-third have been sold — the others having; been car- 
ried by their owners, who have removed — which would leave 
in the state the sum of 824,000,000 arising from the sale 
of slaves." 

The Natchez (Miss.) Courier says " that the states of Lou- 
isiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas, imported two 
hundred and fifty thousand slaves from the more northern 
states in the year 1836." 

The Baltimore American mves the following from a Mis- 
sissippi paper of 1837: "The- report made by the com- 
mittee of the citizens of Mobile, appointed at their meeting 
held on the first instant, on the subject of the existing pe- 
cuniary pressure, states, among other things, that purchases 
by Alabama of that species of property from other states, 
since 1833, have amounted to about $10,000,000 annually." 
The Rev. Dr. Graham, of Fayetteville, N. C, at a coloni- 
zation meeting, held in that place in the fall of 1837, said: 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 51 

" He had resided for fifteen years in one of the largest 
slaveholding counties in the state, had long- and anxiously 
considered the subject, and still it was dark. There were 
nearly seven thousand slaves offered in the New Orleans 
market last winter. From Virginia alone six thousand were 
annually sent to the south ; and from Virginia and North 
Carolina there had gone, in the same direction, in the last 
twenty years, three hundred thousand slaves." 

The New Orleans Courier, February 15, 1839, speaking 
of the prohibition of the African slave-trade, while the 
internal slave-trade is plied, says : " The United States law 
may, and probably does, put millions into the pockets of the 
people living between the Roanoke and Mason and Dixon's 
line ; still we think it would require some casuistry, to show 
that the present slave-trade from that quarter is a whit 
better than the one from Africa."* 

In the grain-growing portions of the slave states, espe- 
cially in the older states, growing of slaves seems to be the 
principal pecuniary advantage of slavery. Hence, as a 
natural result of the system of slavery, slave-raising has 
become the common method of profit. Some affect to deny 
this, as Mr. Stevenson, the American minister, did in Eng- 
land, in 1838. But the fact is so well established, and so 
general, that it can neither be denied nor concealed, however 
much to be deplored. Perhaps very few slaveholders make 
selection of their negro stock for this vile purpose; yet 
there are some who do so, with the aim of having the young 
stock of as light a skin as possible, in order to secure higher 
prices. Many, too, of the young slaves are the children or 
grandchildren, or brothers and sisters of their owners. Add 
to all these abominations, that the greater number of these 
are illegitimate children, so that the bond of matrimony is 

* Those who would wish to see more such authorities quoted are 
referred to " American Slavery As It Is," by Weld, New York, 1839, 
pp. 182-184. 



52 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

little known in this shameful commerce, and this accursed 
custom of slave-raising is worse than, or at least as bad 
as the African slave-trade itself. And if it be not sinful 
and wicked, as well as shameful and brutal, there is no such 
thing: as sin in the world. And this abominable thing 1 has 
been the result of American slavery, and is now a compo- 
nent part of it, and inseparable from it. This most hateful 
and polluting practice is now become as notorious as any- 
thing else can be, and no one in the United States, or in 
the civilized world, can live without becoming acquainted 
with this outrage on the decorum of society. And can 
any Christian who knows these things to be true — and all 
such know it — be content to live a day without endeavoring 
to destroy slavery, the parent of this crying-out sin? 

6. Slave-trading between the states presents traits of 
character as bad as some belonging to the African slave- 
trade, and common to both. 

Between the African and domestic slave-trade there is a 
very strong resemblance in the manner of procuring negroes 
for market, the mode of transferring them to their destined 
places of designation, and the manner of disposing of and 
treating them in their new houses of bondage. 

The slave-trader, with his assistants, traverses the coun- 
try, among the plantations, and in the towns, in search of 
the surplus negroes, and buys them on the best terms he 
can. The small farmer sells one or two at a time, as his 
stock increases. The slave-grower, after reserving those 
suited to his stock calculations, disposes of the most market- 
able. Executors' and sheriffs' sales are narrowly watched, 
and good bargains are there obtained very often for the 
ready cash. 

A few specimens of the every-day advertisements in 
southern papers will give a tolerably-correct idea of the 
practice followed in bartering, advertising, and disposing of 
slaves. We copy from southern papers, in an abridged 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 53 

form. Mr. P. Bahi has committed to jail as a runaway, a 
little negro aged about seven years. The Mayor has com- 
mitted to jail as a runaway slave, Jordan, about twelve 
years old, and the sheriff proclaims that if no one claims 
him he will be sold as a slave to pay jail fees. A boy aged 
fourteen, another aged twelve, and a girl ten, will be sold 
to pay the debts of their deceased masters. Negroes for 
sale : A negro woman of twenty-four years of age, and has 
two children — one eight, and the other three 'years old. 
Said negroes will be sold separately or together, as desired. 
The woman is a good seamstress. She will be sold low for 
cash, or exchanged for groceries. Pursuant to a deed of 
trust will be sold to the highest bidder for cash, Fanny, aged 
about twenty-eight years ; Mary, aged about seven ; Amanda, 
about three months ; Wilson, aged about nine months. By 
executor's sale will be sold one negro girl, about two years 
old, named Rachel, for the benefit of the heirs and creditors 
of the estate. Fifty negroes wanted immediately, for which 
a good price will be given, of from ten to thirty years of 
age. Taken and committed to jail, a negro named Nancy. 
The owner is requested to come forward, prove property, 
pay charges, and take her away, or she shall be sold to pay 
her jail fees. (See American Slavery, pp. 167-169.) 

The internal slave-trade is or has been carried on from 
the old to the new slave states, to the extent of upward of 
eighty thousand annually. In three years ninety thousand 
slaves were introduced into Mississippi. In two or three 
years the slaves of this state increased from sixty thousand 
to one hundred and sixty thousand. 

When the traders collect their purchased slaves they 
secure them in jails and other places of confinement, in 
order to prevent them from running away. The great 
traders, of the wholesale class, erect strong citadels for this 
purpose, which are sometimes called barracoons, where the 
appurtenances of the jail and penitentiary are provided, in 

5* 



54 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

order to preserve them securely for the market, either by 
retail, or, as is mostly the case, till a gang may be made up 
of sufficient numbers to justify the expense and trouble of 
taking them by land in chained gangs ; or, as is more re- 
cently the case, till enough in number are collected to 
charter a vessel, in which they are conveyed for the more 
southern market. 

The following is the description which the Hon. Mr. Gid- 
dings, in his address in 1838, gives of the barracoons and 
other such places: 

" The purchase and sale of slaves at Washington has 
become a regular business. The country around is poor, 
and the growing of slaves lias gradually become a source 
of profit. The public jail built with the money of the na- 
tion, for many years has been used as a prison for slaves 
destined for sale till their owners could dispose of them. 
In this manner the funds belonging to the people of this 
nation are used for the benefit of the slave-trade. Besides 
the jail there are several factories or private prisons appro- 
priated to the imprisonment of slaves. These factories and 
the public jail are made the receptacles of all the horror 
and unutterable anguish attendant upon the separation of 
parents and children, husbands and wives, on being torn 
from home, and country, and friends, and doomed to a 
certain death amidst the miasma of the southern rice and 
cotton plantations. Many instances, shocking to the feel- 
ings of humanity, are related by those who reside there. 

"The public papers that contain the journal of the Na- 
tional Legislature also contain notices for the sale and pur- 
chase of slaves. ' Sales at auction,' where immortal 
beings are sold at public vendue, are heralded forth in the 
government papers. 

"In the most populous parts of the city, on the most 
beautiful avenue of the metropolis, men, women, and children 
are sold at public vendue. All restraint is thrown off. The 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 55 

regular slave-trader pursues his vocation, purchases his cargo 
of human beings, and sends them to other states, or to 
Texas, with as little apparent compunction of conscience 
as he who follows the driving of cattle. He purchases a 
license for 8400 per annum, and then with perfect impunity 
follows a practice which, if pursued on the African coast, 
would by our laws constitute piracy. Strange as it may 
seem, the crime for which he would be hanged, if committed 
in Africa, he commits here for the price of $400 per annum, 
and mingles with the people, freely enters the Capitol with 
the representatives of the nation, sits in the gallery with 
the most virtuous and respectable citizens of these United 
States. Emboldened by the fact that Congress has so long 
shielded and protected them, they have, during the past 
winter, driven their victims, males and females, chained, 
past the Capitol, in view of both houses of Congress, of 
foreign ministers, and representatives of foreign govern- 
ments, residing at Washington, and all that vast concourse 
of visitants usually found at Washington during the winter 
sessions of Congress. The outrages upon the laws of hu- 
manity and upon our national character have deeply affected 
our reputation among the civilized nations of the earth." 

Barracoons. — The following advertisement is copied, 
without the alteration of a letter, from a late Richmond 
Whig. Strange that slaves should ever run away from such 
excellent accommodations as those of Bacon Tait ! Perhaps 
they do not relish the safety and comfort of being sold. 

"Notice. — The commodious buildings which I have 
recently had erected in the city of Richmond, are now 
ready for the accommodation of all persons who may wish 
their negroes safely and comfortably taken care of. 

" The buildings were erected upon an extensive scale, 
without regard to cost, my main object being to insure the 
safe-keeping, and at the same time the health and comfort 
of the negroes who may be placed thereat. 



5G moral identity of the 

" The rooms and yards for the females are separate from 
those for the males, and genteel house servants will have 
rooms to themselves. The regulations of the establishment 
will be general cleanliness, moderate exercise, and recreation 
within the yards during good weather, and good, substantial 
food at all times, by which regulations it is intended that 
confinement shall be rendered merely nominal, and the 
health of the negroes so promoted, that they will be well 
prepared to encounter a change of climate when removed 
to the south. 

"These buildings are situated on the lot corner of loth 
and Cary streets, between Mayo's bridge and the Bell Tav- 
ern. Apply to Bacon Tait." 

The mode of transferring the slaves by land, by the 
slave-dealers, is usually in gongs. 

It was our misfortune to witness, in the spring of 1828, 
in Uniontown, Pa., where w r e then resided, two of these 
gangs. They w T ere not, however, the gangs of the great 
traders. They were only the company composed of the 
slaves of one or two white families, who, with their slaves, 
were moving to the south-west ; and hence these were speci- 
mens of the most favorable description. Each gang con- 
sisted of between fifty and one hundred, of all ages. Two 
or more carnages, w T ith the white families, moved in front. 
After them one or two wagons, carrying negro children and 
their mothers, continued the line. Many colored boys and 
girls were walking along side the line. Behind came a large 
six-horse team with a strong chain attached to the hind part 
of the wagon. On each side of the chain was a line of 
negro men, with their coffle chains attached to this large 
chain. The row on the left of the great chain were attached 
to it by fastenings connected with the handcuffs on their 
right hands, while the row on the right were connected with 
the chain by their left hands. These chained ranks followed 
the loaded wagon, walking in the deep mud through the 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 57 

streets of Uniontown. Several armed white persons walked 
along side, or rode on horseback, having a good look-out to 
see that none would escape. Such sights we never saw 
before or since, and we trust it may never be our lot to see 
such again. But these were merely the domestic, not the 
trading gangs. 

In 1817 James K. Paulding, Esq., since Secretary of the 
Navy, who published " Letters from the South," written 
during an excursion in 1816, gives the following description 
of the doings of a negro-dealer, who seems to have been a 
small peddler in human traffic, yet useful in making tip the 
larger gangs : 

"The sun was shining out very hot, and in turning the 
angle of the road we encountered the following group: 
first, a little cart drawn by one horse, in which five or six 
half-naked black children were tumbled like pigs together. 
The cart had no covering, and they seemed to have been 
broiled to sleep. Behind the cart marched three black 
women, with head, neck, and breasts uncovered, and with- 
out shoes or stockings. Next came three men, bareheaded, 
and chained together with an ox-chain. Last of all, came a 
white man on horseback, carrying his pistols in his belt, and 
who, as we passed him, had the impudence to look us in the 
face without blushing. At a house where we stopped a little 
further on, we learned that he had bought these miserable 
beings in Maryland, and was marching them in this manner 
to one of the more southern states. Shame on the state 
of Maryland ! and I say, shame on the state of Virginia ! 
and every state through which this wretched cavalcade was 
permitted to pass! I do say, that when they — the slave- 
holders — permit such flagrant and indecent outrages upon 
humanity as that I have described ; when they sanction a 
villain in thus marching half-naked men and Avomen, loaded 
with chains, without being charged with any crime but that 
of being black, from one section of the United States to 



58 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

another, hundreds of miles in the face of day, they disgrace 
themselves, and the country to "which they belong." 

The following description of a gang of slaves, on a pretty 
large scale, is a just picture of the revolting spectacle: 

"Just as we reached New river, in the early gray of the 
morning, we came upon a singular spectacle, the most strik- 
ing one of the kind I have ever witnessed. It was a camp 
of negro slave-drivers, just packing up to start. They had 
about three hundred slaves with them, who had bivouacked 
the preceding night in chains in the woods. These they were 
conducting to Natchez, upon the Mississippi river, to w r ork 
upon the sugar plantations in Louisiana. It resembled one 
of those coffles of slaves spoken of by Mungo Park, except 
that they had a caravan of nine wagons and single-horse 
carriages, for the purpose of conducting the white people, 
and any of the blacks that should fall lame, to which they 
were now putting the horses to pursue their march. The 
female slaves were, some of them, sitting on logs of wood, 
while others were standing, and a o-reat manv little black 
children were warming themselves at the fires of the bivouac. 
In front of them all, and prepared for the march, stood, in 
double files, about two hundred male slaves, manacled, and 
chained to each other. I had never seen so revolting a sisdit 
before! Black men in fetters, torn from the lands where 
they were born, from the ties they had formed, and from 
the comparatively easy condition which agricultural labor 
afFords, and driven by white men, with liberty and equality 
in their mouths, to a distant and unhealthy country, to 
perish in the sugar-mills of Louisiana, where the duration 
of life for a sugar-mill slave does not exceed seven years ! 
To make this spectacle still more disgusting and hideous, 
some of the principal white slave-drivers, who were toler- 
ably well dressed, and had broad-brimmed white hats on, 
with black crape round them, were standing near, laughing, 
and smoking cigars. 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 59 

"Whether these sentimental speculators were or Avere not, 
in accordance with the language of the American Declara- 
tion of Independence, in mourning for a ' decent respect for 
the opinions of mankind,' or for their own callous, inhuman 
lives, I could not but be struck with the monstrous ab- 
surdity of such fellows putting on any symbol of sorrow, 
while engaged in the exercise of such a horrid trade; so, 
wishinor them in my heart all manner of evil to endure as 
long as there was a bit of crape to be obtained, we drove on, 
and, having forded the river in a flat-bottomed boat, drew 
up on the road, where I persuaded the driver to wait till 
we had witnessed the crossing of the river by the 'gang/ 
as it was called. 

"It was an interesting, but a melancholy spectacle, to 
see them effect the passage of the river: first, a man on 
horseback selected a shallow place in the ford for the male 
slaves; then followed a wagon and four horses, attended by 
another man on horseback. The other wagons contained 
the children and some that were lame, while the scows, or 
flat-boats, carried over the women and some of the people 
belonging to the caravan. There was much method and 
vigilance observed, for this was one of those situations 
where the gangs, always watchful to obtain their liberty, 
often show a disposition to mutiny, knowing that if one or 
two of them could wrench their manacles off, they could 
soon free the rest, and either disperse themselves or over- 
power and slay their sordid keepers, and fly to the free 
states. 

" The slave-drivers, aware of this disposition in the unfor- 
tunate negroes, endeavor to mitigate their discontent by 
feeding them well on the march, and by encouraging them 
to sing 'Old Virginia never tire,' to the banjo. 

"The poor negro slave is naturally a cheerful, laughing 
creature, and, even when driven through the wilderness in 
chains, if he is well fed and kindly treated, is seldom melan- 



60 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

choly; for his thoughts have not been taught to stray to 
the future; and his condition is so degraded, that if the food 
and warmth his desires are limited to are secured to him, 
he is singularly docile. It is only when he is ill-treated and 
roused to desperation, that his vindictive and savage nature 
breaks out. But these gangs are accompanied by other 
negroes trained by the slave-dealers to drive the rest, whom 
they amuse by lively stories, boasting of the fine, warm 
climate they are going to, and of the oranges and sugar 
which are there to be had for nothing. 

"In proportion as they recede from the free states, the 
danger of revolt diminishes; for, in the southern slave 
states all men have an interest in protecting this infernal 
trade of slave-driving, which, to the negro, is a greater 
curse than slavery itself, since it too often dissevers forever 
those affecting natural ties which even a slave can form, by 
tearing, without an instant's notice, the husband from the 
wife, and the children from their parents — sending the one 
to the sugar plantations of Louisiana, another to the cotton 
lands of Arkansas, and the rest to Texas." (Featherston- 
haugh's Travels in America in 1834-35, pp. 36, 37. New 
York: Harper & Brothers. 1844.) 

But the practice of driving gangs of slaves through the 
country to the southern market has been, to a great extent, 
discontinued, on account of the dangers and inconveniences 
to which it is liable. For the drivers have frequently been 
overpowered by the negroes, and great loss of property 
was thus incurred by their escape. Hence, these specula- 
tors in men have turned their attention to the expediency 
of collecting their gangs in some seaport of a slaveholdino 
state, and thus conveying them in ships or steamboats tc 
the great southern markets, both as the cheapest and safest 
way of conveying them. This scheme, however, introduces 
the domestic slave-trade of the United States upon the 
great highway of nations. In the case of the Creole, a 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 61 

slave-transporting vessel, the cargo of slaves overpowered 
their keepers while on the voyage, and took refuge in a 
British dependency. Although they were claimed as prop- 
erty, the legality of the claim was denied, and the denial 
had to be submitted to. There seems to be no distinction, 
in the eye of humanity, between chaining and transporting 
slaves by land or by sea; and to give countenance of pro- 
tection to slave-traders on the high seas, would be virtually 
giving countenance to the slave-trade. 

Besides, in this traffic, not only between the states, but, 
also, in every neighborhood where slavery exists, the system 
of slavery pays no regard to domestic ties. Husbands and 
wives are separated, parents and children, and other rela- 
tives, are severed, with unsparing cruelty. It is true that 
many individuate, from honest, conscientious motives, would 
not willingly, at any price, separate relatives, or even dis- 
pose of their slaves, except according to their desire. But 
this act of humanity and of religion is not learned from 
slavery, but is a direct revolt against the system. Yet the 
system of slavery, as established by law, and sustained by 
the courts, knows nothing of this humanity. Sheriffs, ex- 
ecutors, and other officers, under the strong protection of 
constitutions, laws, and judicial decisions, break in on all 
the endearing relations of life without pity, and without 
respect to such ties. 

The Rev. James O'Kelly, in a very able "Essay on Ne- 
gro Slavery, published, Philadelphia, 1*789," pp. 35, duo- 
decimo, gives the following cases which came under his own 
observation: (See pp. 8 and 9 of the Essay.) 

"On the Lord's day," says Mr. O'Kelly, "in the evening, 
as I was walking and meditating, I saw a man-slave sitting 
alone, with a book in his hand, who appeared to be in 
deep distress. I drew near to him, and asked the cause of 
his trouble. With a deep sigh, he gave me the substance of 
the following relation : ' My dear wife, and all my children, 

G 



02 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

are removed far from me toward the south, and I shall see 
them no more. And what has augmented my pain, is a 
verbal message to me from her, to love her till I die as she 
would me, and that she never would have another man. 
Formerlv I was much engaged for the salvation of my 
soul; but now I think I shall be overcome, so as to destroy 
bodv and soul together.' 

"A woman-slave, in Charlotte county, Virginia, whose 
husband was removed to Georgia, so regretted his loss, that, 
had it not been for the kind providence of the Almighty, 
through the activity of her young mistress, she would have 
ended her wretched life with a halter. 

'•A poor slave, a few months past, lost his wife and 
children, who were sold as so many cattle, to discharge a 
debt. He pined away to a mere skeleton, and gave up the 
ghost. husbands, who have tender wives and precious 
children, can you acquiesce with a law that tolerates a prac- 
tice so inhuman, which enslaves human creatures who have 
as much ri^ht to their natural liberty as to the common air? 
You are constrained inwardly to acknowledge ' 'tis not alto- 
gether just and equitable, but necessity calls, and it must 
be so now. I wish they had never been brought here, but 
I see no better way for them at present.' On this misera- 
ble excuse the slaveholder sets his foot. 

" I saw a slave near New river, who was lamenting the 
loss of a wife and seven children, who were then on their 
to South Carolina. His grief appeared to me to be 
intolerable, too heavy to be borne without Divine assistance, 
which, I trust, he had. An addition to his grief was, a 
message he had received of her sorrow on the road, that it 
was so great that they were obliged to carry her in a wagon. 
I endeavored to comfort him with the pleasures of the 
other world and religion. Xow, reader, put thy soul — only 
by reflection — in his soul's place, and try the enormous 
weight." 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 63 

Read, also, the following extract : 

''Brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands 
and wives, are torn asunder, and permitted to see each 
other no more. These acts are daily occurring in the midst 
of us. The shrieks and the agony, often witnessed on such 
occasions, proclaim, with a trumpet tongue, the iniquity of 
our svstem. There is not a neighborhood where these 
heart-rending scenes are not displayed. There is nut a vil- 
lage or road that does not behold the sad procession of 
manacled outcasts, whose mournful countenances tell that 
they are exiled by force from all that their hearts hold 
dear." (Address of Synod of Kentucky in 1835, p. 12.) 

7. The present slave system has atrocities equal or sim- 
ilar to those of the African slave-trade ; and, therefore, a 
similar condemnation must rest on it. 

The arguments which have been ur^ed against the Afri- 
can slave-trade, are, with little variation, applicable to the 
system of American slavery. Among the many instances 
that may be given, we produce the following : 

(1.) He who voluntarily holds a slave, as such, continues 
to deprive him of that liberty which was taken from him 
on the coast of Africa. And if it was wrong to deprive 
him of it in the first instance, it must, also, be wrong in the 
second. And, hence, no man has a better right to retain a 
negro in slavery, than he had to take him as a slave from 
his native Africa. And every man who can not show that 
his slave has, by his voluntary conduct, forfeited his liberty, 
is obliged to manumit him, if it be in his power. 

(2.) The mere act of removing the Africans from their 
native countrv, is not that in which the sin of man-stealing 
principally consists ; but it lies in robbing or depriving them 
of their liberty, labor, time, and natural rights. If, then, 
the sin of man-stealing lies in robbing men of these, it is 
impossible that another, either by inheritance or purchase, 
can continue the same robbery and be innocent. 



C4 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

(3.) The motive in the African trader and the genuine 
slaveholder in America is the same ; namely, to derive ad- 
vantage from the transaction. The object of the African 
trader is, to obtain the time, liberty, labor, and natural 
rights of the slave, in order to make these serve his worldly 
interest. The man who pays his money for a slave, pays it 
for a power to do the same thing. It is true our slave- 
holder pays his money for the slave ; and the man-stealer 
was also at some expense to obtain the slave ; for he spent 
his time and risked his life, which are as valuable as money. 

(4.) The first act of stealing the man, and the second act 
of holding him in bondage, are equally criminal. 

The first act implied double robbery; for it was a violent 
separation of husbands from their wives, and children from 
their parents; so that it implied double robbery, although 
the same transaction; because, in all cases where the hus- 
band is taken from the wife, the wife is taken from the 
husband. The same holds true of the parents and children. 

But common slaveholding implies the same double rob- 
bery. If a husband is purchased, and removed from his 
wife and children, he is then robbed from them, and his 
wife and children are equally robbed from him. The same 
holds true of other separations of near relatives. Let the 
crime, then, of man-stealing in the first instance be com- 
pared with common slaveholding, and it will be found that 
the crime of stealing men from Africa, and holding them in 
slavery in America, are essentially the same, and- of equal 
aggravation. Their removal from their place of nativity in 
Africa, is no worse than their removal in America from their 
places of nativity, which is constantly done by slaveholders. 

(o.) The common slaveholder is much more criminal than 
the first man-thief. The first thief or robber steals or robs 
and sells only the first generation, but obliges no purchaser 
to steal or rob their children. Yet slaveholders, in America, 
steal every child as soon as it is born, and entail the same 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 65 

theft upon their posterity to all generations, and the same 
bondage on the slaves and their children to the end of 
time. 

To maintain that long habit or custom has a power of 
turning the most atrocious wickedness into virtue ; or that 
the most atrocious wickedness, by a transfer of the power 
of committing it, will turn into virtue; or that this change 
is justly made by the sanction of civil authority — all, or 
any one of these three, are supremely absurd. 

(6.) The injury of the slave system is more than common 
theft or robbery. For, because liberty is more valuable 
than property ; and that it is a greater sin to deprive a man 
of his whole liberty during life, than to deprive him of his 
whole property ; or that man-stealing is a greater crime 
than robbery. For, to hold a man in slavery who was 
stolen, is substantially the same crime as to steal him. 
Hence, to hold a human being in slavery is a greater crime 
than theft or robbery. 

(7.) It is a greater sin, in the sight of God, to enslave 
men, than it is to be guilty of concubinage or fornication. 
Because, to commit theft or robbery every day of a man's 
life, is as great a sin as to commit fornication in one instance. 
But, to steal a man, or rob him of his liberty, is a greater 
sin than to steal his property, or to take it by violence. 
And to hold a man in slavery who has a right to his liberty, 
is to be every day robbing him of his liberty, or to be 
guilty of man-stealing. The consequence is plain, other 
things being equal, that to hold a slave is a greater sin, in 
the sight of God, than concubinage or adultery. 

(8.) The question is clearly decided by the Bible: "He 
that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in 
his hand, he shall surely be put to death," Exodus xxi, 
16. Thus, death is the punishment awarded to the man- 
stealer, or to him that now holds the stolen person. Now, 
to hold a man in slavery who has a right to liberty, is sub- 



* 



G6 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

stantially the same crime with depriving him of liberty. 
And to deprive of liberty, and reduce to slavery, a man 
who has a right to libertv, is man-stealinor • for it is im- 
material whether he be taken or reduced to slavery clan- 
destinely or by open violence. 

(9.) American slavery has been the great receiver, the 
ally, and the supporter of the African slave-trade. Even 
alter the horrors of the African trade, and its system, 
have been pronounced piracy, so close was the connection 
between the two systems that the African trade continued, 
and yet continues. Multitudes are now kidnapped in Africa 
and introduced into the United States, and "broken in," in 
the southern plantations. The number thus introduced has 
been variously calculated by speakers in Congress, but 
never lower than thirteen thousand per annum, besides the 
multitudes smuggled into Texas from Cuba, or openly 
received in some instances, as has been stated, in utter con- 
tempt of law. 

(10.) Thus, slavery is only a continuation of kidnapping. 
The one is the other continued. The purchaser from the 
kidnapper purchases a kidnapper's title. He buys the 
privilege of continuing upon the person of the slave, the 
same criminal violence and wrong which were commenced 
in Africa. Hence, if slavery be not sinful, kidnapping, and 
the whole system of the African slave-trade, is right; a 
consequence so absurd that no man can admit it. 

(11.) There are several particulars in which the equality 
of atrocity may be traced in the slave-trade and our own 
slaver}'. 

First. In the number of victims of both it will be difficult, 
perhaps, to decide whether the African traffic or our own 
domestic institution may justly claim the bad pre-eminence 
of enslaving the greater number of human beincrs. From 
1700 to 1786 the number of slaves imported by Britain 
into Jamaica alone was six hundred and ten thousand, or 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. C7 

about seven thousand annually. The total number imported 
into all the British colonies, from 1680 to 1786, a space of 
one hundred and six years, was about two million, one hun- 
dred and thirty thousand, making the annual imports to be 
twentv-one thousand or twenty -two thousand. Wilberforce, 
in 1788, reckoned that thirty-eight thousand were annually 
taken from the coast of Africa, on British vessels alone. 
In 1847 the slaves carried from Africa into Brazil alone 
amounted to eighty-four thousand, three hundred and thirty- 
six ; while the total increase of the colored population of 
the United States, from 1830 to 1840 — ten years— bond 
and free, was only fifty-four thousand, three hundred and 
fifty-six. It is now calculated, that about four hundred 
thousand are made victims of the slave-trade annually. 
About one half of these perish in the capture, transporta- 
tion, and seasoning ; and the other half, or two hundred 
thousand, are sold in the various slave countries. 

About eighty thousand slaves, when the trade was brisk, 
were annually transported, in the United States, from the 
old to the new slave states. At present it is calculated, 
that only about forty thousand are transferred annually, in 
the domestic slave-trade of the countrv : and although there 
may be considerable difference between the number of 
victims, in the two trades, the identity of moral turpitude 
can not be questioned. 

Second. The horrors of both systems are identical in 
nature, if not in extent or degree. The capture, the middle 
passage, and the seasoning of the African trade have their 
corresponding atrocities in the sales of the slave-growers to 
the small negro-trader and the barracoon gentlemen. The 
gangs of handcuffed slaves and the shipped gangs to New 
Orleans are sufficiently-good imitations of the middle pas- 
sage, with its murders and low brutality ; and though the 
scavenger trader is despised by his principal and employer — 
the slave-grower — the trader seems to be the more honora- 



08 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

ble man, as he rarely sells his own children or grandchil- 
dren, an alleviation of guilt which can not be claimed by 
many of the growlers of slaves. And, then, the seasoning 
of the African business is certainly, in atrocity, behind the 
seasoning of Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky negroes, in 
the cotton, rice, and sugar plantations of the far south. 
But, then, the African commerce is outdone by our 
home business, when the seasoning has done its work of 
cruelty and death. The African dealer in flesh finishes his 
work, when he sells his chained victims; but the American 
slaveholder then just begins his, and deliberately, and 
according to law, extends the wrong to the end of life and 
to all generations, by new and successive acts of robbery, 
in the enslavement of every child as soon as born. The 
following is an exemplification of this : 

" I shall never forget a scene wiiich took place in the 
city of St. Louis while I was in slavery. A man and his 
wife, both slaves, were brought from the country to the city 
for sale. They were taken to the rooms of Austin & 
Savage, auctioneers. Several slave speculators, who are 
always to be found at auctions where slaves are to be sold, 
were present. The man was first put up, and sold to the 
highest bidder. The wife was next ordered to ascend the 
platform. I was present. She slowly obeyed the order. 
The auctioneer commenced, and soon several hundred dol- 
lars were bid. My eyes were intensely fixed on the face of 
the woman, whose cheeks w r ere wet with tears. But a con- 
versation between the slave and his new master attracted 
my attention. I drew near them to listen. The slave was 
begging his new master to purchase his wife. Said he, 
'Master, if you will only buy Fanny I know you will get 
the worth of your money. She is a good cook, a good 
washer, and her last mistress liked her very much. If you 
will only buy her, how happy I will be !' The new master 
replied that he did not want her, but, if she sold cheap, he 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 69 

would purchase her. I watched the countenance of the 
man while the different persons were bidding on his wife. 
When his new master bid on his wife, you could see the 
smile on his countenance, and the tears stop; but as soon 
as another would, you could see the countenance change, 
and the tears start afresh. From this change of counte- 
nance one could see the workings of the inmost soul. But 
this suspense did not last long. The wife was struck off to 
the highest bidder, who proved to be not the owner of her 
husband. As soon as they became aware that they were 
to be separated, they both burst into tears; and as she 
descended from the auction stand, the husband, walking up 
to her and taking her by the hand, said, ' Well, Fanny, we 
are to part forever on earth. You have been a good wife 
to me. I did all that I could to get my new master to buy 
you; but he did not want you; and all I have to say is, 
I hope you will try to meet me in heaven. I shall try to 
meet you there.' The wife made no reply ; but her sobs 
and cries told too well her own feelings. I saw the coun- 
tenances of a number of whites who were present, and 
whose eyes were dimmed with tears, at hearing the man 
bid his wife farewell. Such are but common occurrences 
in the slave states." (Narrative of the Life of William 
Brown, pp. 110-112.) 

Third. The profits of slavery and the slave-trade form 
a common element of identity between the slave-trade and 
its parent, or, as some would have it, the child — American 
slavery. For gain men engage in the slave-trade, and for 
gain men hold slaves. It is true, that envy, hatred, and 
murder may, and often do, precede the element of gain, as 
in the case of Joseph's brethren, who envied him, then 
hated him, and then determined to kill him; but as the 
twenty pieces of silver were greater gain than to merely 
kill him, they commuted murder for gain; and unless 
slavery will pay, who would be slaveholders? 



70 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

As a specimen of profit, take the following: The brig 
Cygnet, in 1847, was seized by a British cruiser, having 
five hundred and fifty-six slaves on board, and taken to 
Sierra Leone. Allowing the deaths to be one-third, which 
is less than an average, the captain, who was to have had 
$60 per head for freight, would have realized a clear profit 
of $20,000, for a passage of from twenty to twenty-six 
days from Gallinas to Brazil. The profit to Don Luizo, the 
owner, would be 155,000, or the two-thirds, had the ship 
not been taken. 

" On the coast of Africa, negroes are usually paid for in 
money. Sometimes in lozendas, coarse cottons, at a cost of 
about $18 for men, $12 for boys. At Rio Janeiro, their 
value may be estimated at 500 millreas, or £50, for men, 400 
millreas, or £41 10s., for women, 300 millreas, or £31, for 
hoys. Thus, on a cargo of five hundred, at the mean price, 
the profit will exceed £19,000. Cost price of five hundred, 
at $15, or £3 5s. each, £1,625. Selling price at Rio of 
five hundred, at £41 10s. each, £20,750." (Forty Days 
on board a Slaver.) 

The profits on four vessels would not subject them to 
loss provided the fifth escaped. Manael Pinto da Fonseca 
publicly declared, that his profits on the African trade, in 
1844, were 1,300,000,000 reas, or about $1,625,000. A 
profit of two hundred per cent., and often much over, is 
common in the trade even now. 

Fourth. The mortality, too, or waste of human life, in the 
two systems, forms a common characteristic. The greater 
part of the horrors of the domestic slave-trade has not 
been recorded on earth. Under the age of 10 we have not 
accurate data on which to proceed. I find, by comparing 
the ages of slaves with those of the free people of color, 
that between 10 and 24 there should be 665,875 slaves, 
whereas there are but 620,827, showing a deficiency of 
45,048. Between 24 and 36, the working age, there should 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 7l 

be 439,389; there are but 370,330 slaves, making a de- 
ficiency of G9,059. Between the age of 36 and 55, when 
decay begins to affect the slave, there should be 340,161; 
there are only 229,787, making a waste of 110,374. Over 
55 years of age there ought to be 186,797; there are but 
83,736, raising the loss to 103,061. The total deficiency, 
therefore, arising from this waste of life, is 327,541, pre- 
maturely worn out and killed on the cotton and sugar 
plantations in the south for 10 years. 

Taking the census of 1840, and following the same 
standard — the number of the free people of color — there 
ought to be 829,698 slaves between the ages of 10 and 
and 24; there are but 781,206, making a deficiency of 
48,492. Between 24 and 36 there should be 586,107; 
there are but 475,160; deficiency, 110,947. From 36 to 
55 the proper number is 444,376; actual number 284,465; 
deficiency, 159,911, or about 36 per cent. The total de- 
ficiency in 10 years is 319,350. There are not half as many 
slaves over 55, and only two-thirds as many between 36 
and 55, as there would be were the condition of adult 
slaves as favorable to longevity as that of the free colored. 

The census of 1840 shows that the increase of the slave 
population for the 10 previous years was 25 per cent. The 
census of 1830 made the gain 32 per cent. So that the 
increase in 10 years previous to 1840 was 7 per cent, less 
than the 10 years previous to 1S30. According to the 
census of 1840, the slave-exporting states — Delaware, Mary- 
land, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 
Kentucky, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia — had 
parted with 436,501 ; the slave-importing states — Alabama, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and Florida — 
show a gain of only 271,586. The deficiency, 164,915, or 
difference between the exports and imports, can be ex- 
plained only by the loss of life in the south. (See Pro- 
ceedings of Antislavery Convention for 1843, pp. 39-41.) 



72 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

The loss of life attending the slave-trade in Brazil, at 
present, is thirty-five per cent.; that is, for every 65,000 
imported to that country, 100,000 are shipped from Africa. 

Fifth. The breach of domestic relations, between pa- 
rents and children, husbands and wives, in the two great 
departments of slavery, will fully identify them in moral 
character. Perhaps here the African slave-trade, in pro- 
portion to the number of its victims, may claim a " less 
bad" character than its mother, slavery. But the number 
of victims of our home unnatural severances may more 
than balance the account. As it is, in the department of 
our national and individual sinfulness, there is guilt enough 
contracted to rank those concerned, and the system in 
which they are engaged, as one of the most immoral de- 
partments of human crime. And of the millions of cases 
that could be given, a few of which are given in these vol- 
umes, we now present the following, which occurred in 
the city of Washington: 

"A poor woman was put in jail about a week since. It 
is the jail that cost the people of the United States nearly, 
or quite, $60,000. Had this woman committed crime? 
Not the least in the world. Her mistress wants to sell her, 
and pocket the money — that's all. She puts her into jail 
simply to know where she is when she finds a customer. 
This poor woman, offered for sale, expects to be confined in 
a few weeks. She has a husband and mother, but neither 
of them are allowed to go into the jail to visit her. The 
husband tried to talk with her through the grated window, 
the other day, but was driven off by some menial of the 
establishment. Amanda, the slave-woman, is a member of 
the Methodist Church, which takes the name of Bethlehem. 
I hear she is in good standing in the Church, and sustains 
a fair and good character generally. The mistress — the 
owner — the trader — who is she? She is Miss A. B., a ven- 
erable spinster, a few years ago from Virginia, and now 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. *73 

residing in this city. She brought with her this woman, 
her mother, and two or three children, upon whose wages 
she has lived for years past, and now proposes to put 
Amanda in her pocket. She (Miss A. B.) is a member of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, belongs to the M'Kendree 
Chapel congregation, and attends class regularly. I am 
glad to say some of the brethren are a little stirred about 
this transaction. 

•'Within a few days another young wife with an infant in 
her arms, has been put into the same people's jail. She is 
seized upon by the sheriff, and $130 levied upon her. This 
is done by a woman too — a Mrs. or Miss M., of Prince 
George's county, Md. Mrs. M. sold the woman a few years 
since, with her two children, for $650, and has received the 
entire sum, within 850, with the interest — say $80 — and 
now levies upon her for this balance. The husband pro- 
cured a purchaser, and has contrived himself to pay $350 
on the original sum. The balance is yet due, not to the 
woman, but to some one else, who made the purchase. The 
lawyers have got hold of the case, and whether the anxious 
husband will be able to save his wife, or be compelled to 
give her up, heaven only knows." (Correspondent of the 
N. Y. Tribune.) 

Sixth. The following opinions, or rather arguments, will 
further show the moral identity of the African trade and 
American slavery : 

" The slave-trade finds no one bold enough now to defend 
even its memory. And yet, when we hear the slave-trade 
reprobated, and slavery defended by the same persons, I 
must own I think the slave-trade unfairly treated. The 
abuse of the defunct slave-trade is a cheap price for the abet- 
tor of living slavery to pay by way of compromise. But we 
can not allow the colonial party on these terms to cry truce 
with us, by stigmatizing the slave-trade. There is not 
ore general principle on which the slave-trade is to be 

V 



74 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

stigmatized which does not impeach slavery itself." (Lord 
Nugent.) 

Lord Grenville then read a resolution of the commons: 
"This resolution, he said, stated, first, that the slave-trade 
was contrary to humanity, justice, and sound policy. That 
it was contrary to humanity was obvious ; for humanity 
might be said to be sympathy for the distress of others, 
or a desire to accomplish benevolent ends by good means. 
But did not the slave-trade convey ideas the very reverse 
of the definition? It deprived men of all those comforts, 
in which it pleased the Creator to make the happiness of 
his creature to consist, of the blessings of society, of the 
charities of the dear relationships of husband,, wife, father, 
son, and kindred, of the due discharge of the relative duties 
of these, and of that freedom which, in its pure and natural 
sense, was one of the greatest gifts of God to man. 

" It was impossible to read the evidence, as it related to 
this trade, without acknowledging the inhumanity of it and 
our own disgrace. 

" In a state of nature, man had a right to the fruit of his 
own labor absolutely to himself; and one of the main pur- 
poses for which he entered into society was, that he might 
be better protected in the possession of his rights. In both 
cases, therefore, it was manifestly unjust, that a man should 
be made to labor during the whole of his life, and yet have 
no benefit from his labor. Hence the slave-trade and the 
colonial slavery were a violation of the very principle, upon 
which all law for the protection of property was founded. 
Whatever benefit was derived from that trade to an indi- 
vidual, it was derived from dishonor and dishonesty. He 
forced from the unhappy victim of it that which the latter 
did not wish to give him ; and he gave to the same victim 
that which he in vain attempted to show was an equivalent 
to the thino- he took, it bein^ a thincr for which there was no 
equivalent, and which, if he had not obtained by force, he 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 75 

would not have possessed at all. The injustice complained 
of was not confined to the bare circumstance of robbing 
them of the right to their own labor. It was conspicuous 
throughout the system." 

" WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. 

" Shylock. What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong? 
You have among you many a purchased slave, 
Which, like your asses, and your dogs, and mules, 
You use in abject and in slavish parts, 
Because you bought them: shall I say to you, 
Let them be free, marry them to your heirs ? 
Why sweat they under burdens ? let their beds 
Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates 
Be seasoned with such viands ? you will answer, 
The slaves are ours: so do I answer you: 
The pound of flesh, which I demand of him, 
Is dearly bought, is mine, and I will have it; 
If you deny me, fie upon your law." 

" Sir, — Iniquitous, and most dishonorable to Maryland, is 
that dreary system of partial bondage, which her laws have 
hitherto supported with a solicitude worthy of a better 
object, and her citizens by their practice countenanced. 

"Founded in a disgraceful traffic, to which the parent 
country lent her fostering aid, from motives of interest, but 
which even she would have disdained to encourage, had 
England been the destined mart of such inhuman merchan- 
dise, its continuance is as shameful as its origin. 

"Wherefore should we confine the edge of censure to 
our ancestors, or those from whom they purchased ? Are 
not we equally guilty? They strewed around the seeds 
of slavery — ive cherish and sustain the growth. They intro- 
duced the system — we enlarge, invigorate, and confirm it." 
(William Pinckney, speech in the Maryland House of Dele- 
gates, IT 89.) 

Thomas Erskine. — The Lord Chancellor — Erskine — said : 
" From information which he could not dispute, he was war- 
ranted in saying, that on this continent [Africa] husbands 



*76 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

were fraudulently and forcibly severed from their wives, and 
parents from their children ; and that all the ties of blood 
and affection were torn up by the roots. He had himself 
seen the unhappy natives put together in heaps in the hold 
of a ship, where, with every possible attention to them, 
their situation must have been intolerable. He had also 
heard proved in courts of justice, facts still more dreadful 
than those which he had seen. One of these he would just 
mention. The slaves on board a certain ship rose in a mass 
to liberate themselves ; and having far advanced in the pur- 
suit of their object, it became necessary to repel them by 
force. Some of them yielded ; some of them were killed 
in the scuffle ; but many of them actually jumped into the 
sea and were drowned ; thus preferring death to the misery 
of their situation ; while others hung to the ship, repenting 
of their rashness, and bewailing with frightful noises their 
horrid fate. Thus the whole vessel exhibited but one hide- 
ous scene of wretchedness. They who were subdued, and 
secured in chains, were seized with the flux, which carried 
many of them off. These things were proved in a trial 
before a British jury, which had to consider whether this 
was a loss which fell within the policy of insurance — the 
slaves being regarded as if they had been only a cargo of 
dead matter. He could mention other instances, but they 
were much too shocking to be described. Surely, their 
lordships could never consider such a traffic to be consistent 
with humanity or justice." 

8. Slavery is the parent of the slave-trade. 

Africa is annually robbed of four hundred thousand of 
her population, to glut the cupidity or to minister to the 
pride and luxury of nominal Christians and true Moham- 
medans. From two hundred thousand to three hundred 
thousand of these perish in their original capture ; by the 
fatigues and privations in their transit to the coast ; by 
disease and death in the middle passage. .And the remain- 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 77 

der, or between one hundred thousand and two hundred 
thousand, are doomed to perpetual slavery. There are 
above one hundred thousand transported to Cuba and Bra- 
zil, by the two weakest nations of Europe ; and, in conse- 
quence of the vigilance of the British nation, the horrors of 
the trade, as to capture, middle passage, landing and sea- 
soning, are greater than before the legal condemnation of 
the trade. When the contest against the slave-trade com- 
menced, a little over half a century ago, it was calculated 
there were from two to three millions of slaves in the world ! 
There were recently, according to documents quoted by Sir 
James Buxton, from six to seven millions. Fifty years ago, 
it was estimated that one hundred thousand slaves were 
annually taken from Africa. Now it is calculated the num- 
ber is four hundred thousand per annum. 

" To begin with that which has chiefly occupied my atten- 
tion for many months past : last November I started on a 
pilgrimage through all the books and parliamentary docu- 
ments connected with the slave-trade. I began from the 
very beginning, and, partly in person, still more by deputy, 
I traversed the whole subject ; and such a scene of diabo- 
lism, and such an excess of misery, as I have had to survey, 
never, I am persuaded, before fell to the lot of an unhappy 
investigator. Will you believe it, the slave-trade, though 
England has relinquished it, is now double to what it was 
when Wilberforce first began ; and its horrors not only 
aggravated by the increase of the total, but in each particu- 
lar case more intense than they were in 1788? Will you 
believe it, again, that it requires at the rate of a thousand 
human beings per diem in order to satisfy its enormous maw ? 
How glad have I been to have escaped from the turmoils of 
Parliament, and to have my mind and my time my own, 
that I might bestow them without interruption on this vast 
mass of misery and crime !" — J. F. Buxton s Letter to J. J. 
Gumey, August 18, 1838. (See Buxton's Life, p. 369.) 



78 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

The demand creates a market. The system of slavery- 
makes the demand for slaves. The Christian breeders of 
them can not supply them cheap enough. Hence the foreign 
slave-trade, the offspring of slavery. And what moral dif- 
ference is there between buying and selling men, women, 
and children, in the slave states, in carrying on the internal 
slave-trade, and going to the coast of Africa to steal or 
purchase them ? There is no moral difference. The law 
made by slaveholders establishes a difference ; but the law 
of God pronounces both to be man-stealing, and worthy of 
death. " He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if lie 
be found in his hand, shall surely be put to death," Ex. 
xxi, 10. While slavery exists, the slave-trade must live 
and flourish, without mitigation or diminution. 

9. The state of Africa before visited by the Europeans 
may be considered, for the purpose of meeting the objection 
which is made by some, that the slaves are in a better con- 
dition here than they were in Africa. They say the slaves 
were captives or convicts, who would be sacrificed, were 
they not carried away ; that slavery as it exists here never 
existed in Africa, and the kind that does exist has many 
ameliorating circumstances attending it, unknown to our 
slave code. Besides, the alleged misery, and degradation 
of Africa, were introduced, to a very great degree, by the 
evil deeds of those who had so far drowned the voice of 
conscience as to engage in seizing or buying even convicts 
for gain, convey them to the market by the middle passage, 
and complete their infamous deeds by selling them like 
brutes or beasts. The following testimonies we adduce in 
favor of our position : 

"Axim is cultivated and abounds with numerous large 
and beautiful villages: its inhabitants are industriously em- 
ployed in trade, fishing, or agriculture. The inhabitants of 
Adam always expose large quantities of corn to sell, besides 
what they want for their own use. The people of Acron 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERV. 79 

husband their grounds and time so well, that every year 
produces a plentiful harvest. When walking through the 
Fetu country I have seen it abound with fine, well-built, and 
populous towns, agreeably enriched with vast quantities of 
corn and cattle, palm-wine and oil. The inhabitants all 
apply themselves, without distinction, to agriculture. Some 
sow corn ; others press oil, and draw wine from the palm- 
trees. Formerly all crimes in Africa were compensated by 
fine or restitution, and, where restitution was impracticable, 
by corporeal punishment." (Bosman.) 

" The discerning natives count it their greatest unhappi- 
ness, that they were ever visited by the Europeans. They 
say, that we Christians introduced the traffic of slaves; 
and that, before our coming, they lived in peace. But, say 
they, it is observable, wherever Christianity comes, there 
come swords, and guns, and powder, and ball with it." 
(Smith, sent out by the Royal African Company, in 1726.) 

"The Europeans are far from desiring to act as peace- 
makers among them. It would be too contrary to their 
interests ; for the only object of their wars is, to carry off 
slaves; and as these form the principal part of their traffic, 
they would be apprehensive of drying up the source of it, 
were they to encourage the people to live well together. 
. . . The neighborhood of the Darnel and Tiu keep them 
perfectly at war, the benefit of which accrues to the 
company, who buy all the prisoners made on either side; 
and the more there are to sell, the greater is their profit; 
for the only end of their armaments is, to make captives, 
to sell them to the white traders." (Bruce.) 

Arlus, of Dantzic, says, that, in his time, "those liable to 
pay fines were banished till the fine was paid ; when they 
returned to their houses and possessions." 

•"Since this trade has been used, all punishments have 
been changed into slavery. There being an advantage in 
such condemnation, thev strain the crimes very hard, in 



80 MORAL IDENTITY OF THE 

order to get the benefit of selling the criminal. Not only- 
murder, theft, and adultery are punished by selling the 
criminal for a slave, but every trifling crime is punished in 
the same manner." (Moore.) 

"The king of Sain, on the least pretense, sells his sub- 
jects for European goods. He is so tyrannically severe, 
that he makes a whole village responsible for the fault of 
one inhabitant, and, on the least pretense, sells them all for 
slaves." (Sayer.) 

These witnesses were mostly engaged in the slave-trade, 
themselves. Others might be easily added, were it neces- 
sary. Barbarism, ignorance, and even inhumanity are made 
more barbarous, ignorant, and inhuman, by the slavery 
which exists in this country, which sends its pestilence over 
to Africa, to degrade it below common heathenism; and all 
this by Christian men! (See Clarkson's History of the 
Slave-trade, pp. 504-506.) 

10. The principles on which the slave-trade has been 
destroyed by Great Britain and the United States will 
finally overthrow slavery itself. The slave-trade is barely 
the leading means of supplying slavery with its victims. 
The other means of supply is the domestic slave-growing 
and the domestic slave-trade of the country. The great 
moral principles which affect any one of these branches of 
supply must affect the other, as well as the practical system 
of slaveholding itself. What overturns the one must over- 
turn the other; and success in one is the earnest of success 
in the other. If the slave-trade be contrary to humanity 
and justice, so must slavery be contrary to humanity and 
justice. The one is barely the means ; the other is the end 
to be accomplished by the means; and if the African trade 
is inhuman and unjust, as a sinful means to secure a sinful 
end, the domestic trade of purchase, sale, transportation, 
and slave-growing, which is only one other great means to 
secure the same sinful end — the holding in bondage our 



AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 81 

fellow-men — must be also sinful. It is of little account, 
whether the slave in America was enslaved as soon as born 
where he labors, or is a native African. The home-made 
slave and the foreign slave are owned by the same master, 
labor in the same field, are deprived of the same rights, vis- 
ited with the same wrongs, and the entailment on their pos- 
terity the same. 

The abolition of the slave-trade was one of the most 
glorious events that ever transpired. It was a contest, but 
it was one, not of brute force, but of reason. It was a 
contest between those who felt deeply for the happiness 
and elevation of their fellow-men, and those who, through 
vicious custom and the impulse of avarice, had trampled 
under foot the sacred rights of nature, and attempted to 
deface the Divine image from their minds. In the discus- 
sions accompanying and following the abolition of the 
African trade, the most generous moral sympathies have 
been called into exercise, and have gone far to preserve 
national virtue, and to preserve from barbarism the nations 
which engaged in the suppression of the trade. This 
discussion is useful in the discrimination of moral character, 
ranking the wise and good on the side of freedom, and 
leaving the mistaken and vicious on the side of slavery, or 
in a sinful neutrality. It is a marvelous occurrence, that 
two nations, the most powerful on earth — England and 
America — the mother and the child — should, in the same 
month of the same year, have abolished the African trade. 
Emancipation, in part, followed in America. Under the 
British flag freedom has occupied the place of bondage. 
Other nations are following the good example ; and Amer- 
ica is in rapid progress to complete the work, commenced 
in the abolition of the foreign trade, and continued in the 
advance of freedom. Well might the devout Clarkson 
conclude his admirable history of the abolition of the African 
slave-trade with this golden sentence: "Reader, thou art 



82 AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND SLAVERY. 

now acquainted with the history of this contest. Rejoice 
in the manner of its termination ! and, if thou feelest grate- 
ful for the event, retire within thy closet, and pour out thy 
thanksgiving to the Almighty, for this his unspeakable act 
of mercy to thy oppressed fellow-creatures." 



THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 83 



CHAPTER III. 

THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 

As the enslavement of children, as soon as they are born, 
is become now the substitute of the African slave-trade, 
and, therefore, the support of slavery, which feeds and 
supplies its victims, it will deserve particular attention. We 
will, therefore, devote a short chapter exclusively to its 
consideration. The following are the arguments and con- 
siderations which we brine; against it: 

1. No one can ever be born a slave. 

Liberty is the natural right of every human being, as 
soon as he breathes the air; and no human law can justly 
deprive him of that right, which he derives from the law of 
nature. "All men are created free and equal." 

In this light it is considered in the Roman or civil law, as 

appears from the following quotation from the Institutes of 

Justinian: "Liberty is a natural faculty, which belongs to 

every man, unless he is deprived of it by force or by law. 

Slavery is a constitution of the law of nations, by which 

any one is subjected to the dominion of another, contrary 

to nature."* According to this, liberty is the natural 

faculty, privilege, or right of every person ; and every one 

possesses it, till he is deprived of it by force or law. 

While slavery is contrary to nature, it is a constitution, 

or institution, of the law of nations. Hence, every child 

of man is free, till he is made a slave. He is never 

born a slave. If one were born a slave, then all must be 

born slaves, because all are born alike ; nor do we hear of 

any manumissions from a state of nature, that persons 

should be free, which must be the case, were men born 

* " Libertas quidem est naturalis facultas ejus, quod cuique 
facere libet, nisi siquid vi aut jure prohibetur. Servitus autem 
est constitutio juris gentium, qua quis dominio alieno contra 
naturam subjicitur." (Institutiones Justiniani, lib. i, tit. 3.) 



84 THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 

slaves; nor do we find that any become slaves by nature: 
they are made so by force or by law; and without such 
force of violence or law, they are never found to be slaves. 
"We hear, indeed, of some who were born servants in the 
house, in the days of the patriarchs. But servants were 
not slaves; and, indeed, the servants of the patriarchs were 
mostly their subjects or dependents. 

2. The enslavement of children, especially, is a direct 
violation of the law of nature; and this law of nature, as 
well as other natural laws, is the law, or constitution, of 
God himself. Blackstone — book i, p. 420 — after showing 
that men can not justly be made slaves by captivity or the 
sale of one's self, proves that they can not be born slaves, 
because, "this being built on the two former rights, must 
fall together with them. If neither captivity nor the sale 
of one's self can, by the law of nature and reason, reduce 
the parent to slavery, much less can they reduce the off- 
spring." 

3. All men, from their birth, are naturally, necessarily, 
and in all circumstances, the rightful owners of themselves, 
and are, therefore, incapable of becoming the goods and 
chattels of another, except by theft, violence, or unjust 
laws; for, since all men are naturally free, no one can 
deprive them of that freedom, but by the complicated 
crime of theft and robbery. A man may, by his crimes, 
forfeit his right to freedom, or he may sell his freedom for 
life, as it respects labor ; but he can not transfer to another 
his right to perform the duties of religion, nor the relative 
duties which he owes to men; and as no man can transfer 
to another his own right to private, relative duties, he 
certainly can not transfer the natural rights of another to a 
third person ; therefore, no man, without being guilty of 
theft or robbery, can take away the freedom of the 
Africans; much less can he take away the freedom of their 
children and their children's children; for, when human 



THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 85 

beings are stolen, or, which is the same, are made property, 
the stolen person and the true owner are the same ; hence, 
properly speaking, it is impossible to steal one human being 
from another. A child may be stolen from a parent; but 
it must be stolen as a child, and not as a chattel. The 
services of the child are abstracted from the parent; but 
the thief could not take the child as an article of property. 
As a. thing to be possessed, and used as a thing of right, 
the child can only be stolen from himself. Theft, when a 
human being is stolen, is nothing but slaveholding ; and 
slaveholdinjj is nothing else than the theft of a human 
being; for the essence of theft is, that the thief uses as his 
own what belongs to another. So, when the owner and 
the property become identical, every moment's use of the 
owner, as the property of another and not of himself, is an 
act of stealing ; hence, when one man possesses and uses 
another as a slave, he as much commits an act of theft, as 
the original kidnapper, who stole the man from Africa. 

4. The enslavement of children is one of the unsound 
principles of heathenism, incorporated in the civil law, but 
adopted by the nominal Christian enslavers from their 
heathen compeers in crime. The Roman or civil law says, 
"Persons are born slaves, from slave mothers, or they are 
made slaves by captivity or law;" and elsewhere the general 
maxim is adopted, "Partus sequitur ventrem" — the child 
follows the condition of the mother. It is nothing in the 
way of slaveholders, that this same maxim is contrary to 
the law of nature, because they will be bound by no law 
of right. 

Enslaving children, on account of the condition of 
the parent, is visiting a capital crime on the child for 
the sin of the parent, even should it be granted that 
the parent is justly deprived of liberty for crime. The 
offspring, according to all just laws, are not sentenced to 
death for the sin of their parents ; and it is no more unjust 

8 



86 THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 

to put to death the children of murderers, for the murders 
committed by their parents, than to enslave the children of 
slaves, because their mothers were slaves. How great, 
then, is the injustice, when the doom of perpetual servitude 
is inflicted, not upon criminals, convicted of atrocious wick- 
edness, but upon children, from their birth to their grave, 
who have never been accused of any crime, and against 
whom there is not the least suspicion of guilt! 

When the mother is a slave for no crime, as has always 
been the case with every African slave mother, as the annals 
of history furnish no example of the enslavement of children 
on account of the crimes of the mother, the atrocity seems 
to be somewhat lightened, if it were possible that the sin of 
enslavement could be aggravated. Has ever a slave been 
made such, in all the United States, because the mother 
was sentenced by law to undergo the penalty of slavery for 
crime ? No such instance ever properly took place ; so that 
innocent children of innocent mothers are constantly pun- 
ished, by the laws of the slave states and the slaveholders, 
and are punished as guilty felons. Here, three millions of 
innocent beings, guilty of no crime — accused of no crime — 
suspected of no crime — are punished as felons, or man- 
slayers; and the same unjust sentence is pronounced against 
their children throughout all time. 

Is it the will of God, that, if the parents had fallen into 
the hands of thieves, and had chains on them when the chil- 
dren were born, the children ought to be slaves ? If so, it 
would follow, that all who were born in the political state, 
against which our fathers rose in 1775, ought to have 
continued under it ; and, therefore, the principle, that all 
men are created free and equal, must be wrong; or, those 
to whom the law of Moses was given, having been born of 
slave parents, were Pharaoh's lawful property, and the 
Lord punished him for holding on to his own lawful prop- 
erty. If the wrath of God awaits him who rushes into an 



THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 87 

African village, and seizes on men and women and makes 
slaves of them, how can he escape who seizes the child in 
the arms of the slave mother before it opens its eyes, and 
makes it a slave for life ? 

5. The enslavement of children is forbidden in the law 
of Moses. On the seventh year all Hebrews, who became 
temporary slaves, were free, or, at the farthest, at the year 
of jubilee; for the j r ear of jubilee proclaimed liberty to 
all the inhabitants of the land. Thus the enslaving of 
children, on account of their parents, is clearly overturned 
by the law of God as delivered to Moses. 

6. To enslave children is contrary to the very spirit of 
the New Testament. Our Savior came "to preach the 
Gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach 
deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the 
blind ; to set at liberty them that are bruised." Can the 
disciples of such a master inflict the least, much less the 
greatest of punishments, upon a human being who has never 
been guilty of any crime ? Our Savior took little children 
in his arms and blessed them. The slaveholders seize on 
them as a lawful prey — tear them from the bosoms of their 
distracted mothers — doom them to ignorance and degra- 
dation. And so low do they reduce them in the scale of 
subjection, that they can descend no lower. The maxim 
of the civil law is, "In servorum conditions nulla est dif- 
ferentia " — in the condition of slaves there is no difference. 

*7. It is as unjust to enslave the children of colored peo- 
ple, as the children of the white people. It is as unjust to 
enslave the children of white or black persons in the slave 
states, as it would be to enslave them in the free states. 
The blacks are born as free as the whites ; and one black is 
born as free as another. No human law can justly deprive 
any one of liberty, which is an inheritance of his birth. 
No human legislation can make that which is morally 
wrong politically right. It would be the same crime for 



88 THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 

individuals to enslave -white children, after such laws were 
made, as it was before. We have the same right in the 
north to make laws to enslave our children, that the south 
have to enslave theirs. But, neither we nor they have any 
more right to make such laws, than we have to attempt to 
legislate away the laws of God. And this is much worse 
in the hands of professed Christians and ministers, than in 
the hands of infidels. And all this is self-evident, and needs 
no reasoning to establish it, other than to express it in plain 
terms. The Declaration of Independence asserts this as a 
self-evident truth : "We hold these truths to be self-evi- 
dent, that all men are created equal ; and they are endowed 
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights : among these 
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The char- 
acter of the man who enslaves a child, must be fixed by 
the same standard which decides the character of him who 
goes to the shores of Africa, and steals or buys stolen men 
and enslaves them. Neither human laws nor geographical 
boundaries can change moral principles. If the stolen 
person, among the Jews, were found in the hand of a man, 
he was pronounced as guilty as the original man-stealer, 
and the sentence, in all cases, was death. Those in whose 
hands innocent children are found, have in possession stolen 
children; and they will be held as guilty of death, of 
moral death, in the eye of the law of God. From this 
there is no escape, but to restore to the stolen child the 
possession of himself, and to hold him, not as stolen prop- 
erty to be used for his benefit, but as stolen property to be 
restored with the least possible delay to the owner — to the 
child himself. 

How specially atrocious is the sin to make laws to enslave 
our own children, and then practice these laws over our 
children and grandchildren, and our relatives by blood! 
Who are the enslaved mulattoes of the south, but the blood 
relations of those who enslave them? This is no fabrication 



THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 89 

of abolitionists, or northern fanatics. The parents of these 
children, and their near and distant relatives, have enslaved 
them ; and this is constantly done, every year, every day, 
every hour. 

8. The enslavement of children is theft continued in. 
Slaves, in this country, were originally stolen from Africa, 
or seized by violence, and thus abducted. In the enslave- 
ment of the children of slaves, the same theft is continued. 
The first man-thief, kidnapper, or man-stealer, stole the 
slaves from Africa; and retaining them in bondage is a 
recognition of the first act of stealing, and a mere repeti- 
tion or continuance of it. Every infant born of an African 
slave is stolen from its mother, which is as plain an act of 
man-stealiner as the first. Where is the difference, whether 
the child was born in Virginia or Africa, when it becomes 
a slave? For example, take two children of the same age, 
the one born in Africa, the other in Virginia: both, in 
process of time, become the slaves of the same master, and 
are equally treated as slaves — is not the condition of both 
the same? 

Now, to enslave is "to convert a freeman into a slave," or 
"to continue him in a state of slavery." God made man 
free; men have made him a slave. All men are created 
equal — all are, by nature, in possession of liberty. It 
amounts to the same, whether a freeman be converted into 
a slave by conquest, by kidnapping, or by the laws of the 
land. It may be the act of an individual or a community. 
The very same thing, in all these modes, is done to a free- 
man — the act of reducing him to a slave. The act is pre- 
cisely the same, and the effect of it on the man is precisely 
the same, were the modes of doing it ten times more numer- 
ous than they are or have been — just as murder is the 
same, whether the act was perpetrated by the sword, the 
rifle, the bowie-knife, or the halter. It is murder in all 
these cases. So slavery is the same to the enslaved, whether 

8* 



90 THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 

his liberty was taken from him, and slavery inflicted on him, 
b} r secret stealth, open violence, or by following the condi- 
tion of his much-injured and enslaved mother. A man 
may be very innocent in becoming, by inheritance, the legal 
owner of a slave; and the restoration of right to the original 
owner may, for a time, be impracticable ; but none of these 
things sanction the original wrong, or abolish the moral 
claim of the original owner; or, in other Avords, the right 
of the slave to the freedom of himself. In such case, the 
legal owner of the slave may retain, in safe-keeping, the 
stolen 'property — the enslaved man — till he has it in his 
power to give him liberty ; but he is not to use this property 
as his own, but in trust for its owner. And the master is 
at no loss to know who the owner is ; for the man or child, 
who is now his legal slave, is the original, the rightful, and 
the only owner of himself. 

9. Enslaving children is chargeable with all the abomina- 
tions of slave-growing, as portrayed in the foregoing chap- 
ter. The darkest picture on the page of human criminality 
is that of enslaving children. This is done for gain. The 
brutal pleaders for this accursed thing compare mothers to 
brood-mares, in their comments on the heathen maxim, 
"The child follows the condition of the mother." Pros- 
pective mothers of the doomed infant slaves, are selected 
and purchased in the market for this purpose, and kept in 
view of its gains. And where no intention of such deeds 
enters the hearts of slaveholders, the essential laws of the 
system secure the very same thing. So that, whether it is 
done by law, or by the mere will of the owner, the same 
thing is done. The young brood are slaves from their 
birth. The law of nature is broken. The mere disgrace 
of this more than heathenish brutishness, is the smallest 
part of the evil. The manifest sinfulness is the chief thing. 
Hence, every one who enslaves children, must be content to 
take all the disgrace and sin which belong to a voluntary 



THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 91 

slave-breeder. From this there is no escape, but by flight 
from the system which embraces this abomination of slave- 
growing as one of its inseparable, constituent parts. 

10. The enslaving of children is a mere substitute for 
the African slave-trade. How Avas the system of slavery 
in this country commenced, and subsequently supplied, till 
it obtained all the maturity and strength of a powerful 
system ? The answer is plain — from the supplies furnished 
annually from the African slave-trade. How is slavery now 
sustained in America? Not by the African slave-trade, but 
by the American slave-trade of these United States — the 
constant enslavement of children. Virginia went for the 
abolition of the African trade, that their home trade might 
be more profitable in growing young slaves for market. 
The extreme south were zealous for the African trade. 
But home consumption gained the day; and from that time 
till now has engrossed the slave market, and excluded the 
foreign trade as piracy and sin, punishable with death. 
But the home trade of slave-growing has done the same 
thing, and is, therefore, sinful, if the African trade be sinful. 
A survey of the number of children enslaved annually, 
will set this in a clear light. The number of free people 
reduced to slavery annually, and the manumitted who are 
re-enslaved, though considerable in itself, is small compared 
with the number of children annually enslaved. In the 
aggregate number enslaved every year, the children need 
only be calculated, for the others are as nothing compared 
to them. The number of children may be pretty accurately 
ascertained by the census. As there are now about three 
millions of slaves in the United States, if twenty-five years 
will make a generation, then three millions of human beings 
are enslaved in the United States every twenty-five years. 
But, taking thirty years for a generation, then every thirty 
years three millions are made slaves, not in Africa, but in 
the United States, under the flag of liberty. According to 



92 THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 

this calculation, one hundred thousand are annually en- 
slaved ; or, in other words, one hundred thousand free 
persons are made slaves every year in our free republic! 
or the number daily deprived of liberty, and reduced to 
slavery, is two hundred and seventy-four! In our Christian 
country, where all men are born free and equal, three mil- 
lions are deprived of freedom and converted into slaves 
every thirty years, one hundred thousand annually, and 
two hundred and seventy-four daily ! " Hail Columbia, 
happy land !" 

To make this matter more plain, if plainer it can be, we 
ask the question, What would the effect be on our slave 
system, were all born free to continue free, or were no 
children enslaved? "What else would it be, than to sweep 
away slavery from our midst in one generation? Hence, 
enslaving children is the support of slaver}^ The African 
trade was the first great supplier. Now, our own domestic 
trade does the work effectually, and supplies annually one 
hundred thousand fresh victims, to keep up the vilest system 
that ever saw the sun. 

11. Nor can the man who raises another have a right to 
his services during life. Those who raise orphans are not 
entitled to their services during life. The services of such, 
till they are twenty-one, are considered as the price for 
raising them. Such services parents are allowed for raising 
their children. And, certainly, slaveholders can not be 
entitled to any further remuneration. Besides, they gener- 
ally raise the slaves in a very coarse manner. They have 
not the trouble of nursing them, nor do they give them any 
education. They also receive such services from their pa- 
rents, as more than compensate for the expenses incurred 
in supporting the young slaves before they arrive at matu- 
rity. Consequently, masters are not entitled to the services 
of slaves during life, because they have raised them. The 
man who enslaves another because he has raised him, 



THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 93 

violates his rights as much as the man-stealer violates the 
rights of those whom he steals from Africa. 

12. Nor can those who purchase slaves have any just 
title to their offspring, so as to make slaves of them also, 
without the violation of natural right. The slaves pur- 
chased were themselves unjustly enslaved; for they were 
either stolen or descended from those who were stolen, and, 
therefore, none can have any right to buy or sell them. 
Were the parents justly bound to service during life, that 
could give no right of enslaving the offspring. Parents 
have no right to the services of their own children beyond 
a limited time; and, therefore, are not permitted to hold 
them in bondage during life, nor to sell them to others for 
slaves. And if parents who nurse, train, educate, and 
provide sustenance for their children, have no right to hoM 
their own children as slaves during life, no others can have 
such right. For it can not be pretended that slaveholders 
can have as much right to the service of children whom 
they have neither nursed, educated, or provided for, as 
parents have to their own offspring. Hence, slavery, which 
originated in violence and theft, and is perpetuated by 
means equally as unjust as those in which it originated, is a 
flagrant violation of the divine law against man-stealing. 

13. The right of freedom can not be taken away from 
any innocent human being, without the greatest injustice; 
although the power of freedom may be taken away for 
crime. By what law or authority can the right of freedom 
be taken away? Not by the moral law, which precludes 
stealing, robbery, and violence; not by the authority of 
the civil law, for the civil law has no just power to interfere 
with men's private rights. The people, the constituents of 
civil government, never transferred, or could transfer, to 
their representatives a power over the private rights of 
men; and civil rulers can never justly give legal power to 
others, which they did not possess themselves. Slaves, 



94 THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 

therefore, have the right to freedom, and the power of en- 
joying this right is withheld from them by the system of 
slavery, which proves slaveholding to be downright theft 
and robbery. 

14. The claim of property in man and in an inanimate 
object can not stand on the same basis. It is true, slave- 
holders tell us that " slaves are as truly property as freehold 
estate." This is not true. The master's risrht, even according 
to slave laws, is not exactly " that of a fee simple absolute." 
Even slave laws have assumed a power of interference and 
control which are not assumed in reference to other prop- 
erty. An owner may destroy the life of his oxen, dogs, or 
horses; and with regard to chattels generally, he may 
destroy them. In these and such matters, even slave laws 
throw in their interference, however feeble and unavailing. 
But the slave may be a Christian, a husband, a wife, a child, 
a parent. In each of these relations, as well as that of 
being an accountable agent, he may possess responsibilities 
of the highest order, which he is bound to fulfill by the law 
of God, in preference to every other obligation whatever. 
Now the alleged "freehold right of property in man," is a 
palpable violation of the fundamental principles of God's 
law. Hence, the assertion of such rights as these, whether 
by law or otherwise, is an intolerable usurpation on the laws 
of God and the rights of human nature. When the planters 
of Demerara complained that the Sunday labor of the 
slaves was unjustly WTested from them by the interference 
of the Imperial Parliament, Lord Bathurst replied, "that 
Sunday was the slaves' day, to be employed according to 
the law of God," and added by expressing the hope, " that 
no Christian master would so far forget himself as to claim 
indemnity for what Ms religion — the law of God — must 
have taught him he ought never to have required." By 
this he pronounced slavery to be a usurpation on the rights 
of our fellow-men, and a violation of the laws of God. 



THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 95 

The keen retort of Daniel O'Connel, in 1831, in the Brit- 
ish Parliament, to Mr. Burge, is worth noticing in this place. 
Mr. Burge, a stout pro-slavery advocate, in his speech, took 
occasion to ask, indignantly, ''What! would you come in be- 
tween man and his freehold?" To this O'Connel, in his 
reply, made the following prompt retort: "I started, as if 
something unholy had trampled on my father's grave, and I 
exclaimed, with horror, 'A freehold in a human being!' ' 
(London Antislavery Reporter, vol. iv, p. 268.) 

Take another replication of the same sort. In 1832 Sir 
C. B. Cardington, an extensive slave-owner in the West 
Indies, in a letter to Mr. Buxton, speaking of the negro, 
said : " He is a slave by no act of the planter, but by the 
laws of England; by the same laws he is my absolute 
property, of which I can not justly be deprived without 
compensation." Mr. Buxton replies: "You call the slave 
your absolute property. Here is precisely the point on 
which we are at issue. I venture to call your property in 
him, however acquired, a usurpation. I deny that any 
human being, or body of men, can have had power to give 
him to you. My creed is, that to every individual horn into 
the world belongs the absolute right to his own limbs — his own 
labor — his own liberty — to his wife — to his children — to his 
enjoyment of entire freedom — and to the unrestricted 
worship of his God. I know, in short, no claim you can 
plead to extort from him unrequited labor, which an Alge- 
rine might not plead with equal force to hold in bondage his 
Christian captives — absolute property in our fellow- 
men!" (Antislavery Reporter, vol. v, pp. 307-309. Lon- 
don, 1833.) 

To the same purpose is the following declaration of Wil- 
berforce, uttered June 25, 1824: "Everyman is endowed 
with various faculties, for the use of which he is responsible 
to his Creator. He has no right to transfer that responsi- 
bility to another ; and for another to take it away from him, 



90 THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 

except for some crime which justifies such a punishment, is 
a downright infringement on the rights of God, as well as 
a usurpation of the rights of man. Slavery in any condi- 
tion and any form is insufferable, because it is, in fact, to 
give to man that which the corrupt nature of man ought 
not to possess — absolute and uncontrolled power over a 
fellow-creature." (x\ntislavery Reporter for 1824, London, 
p. 99.] 

15. Now a few words as to the just right of the master 
to the slave, especially the slave child. There are some 
whose notions of justice are so confused, and confounded by 
slavery, as to suppose the master has something like an 
honest title to the person of the slave. We have been so 
long accustomed to talk of "my slave," and "your slave," 
and of what he would fetch, if sold, that we are apt to 
imagine that he is really yours or mine, and that we have a 
just right to keep, sell, or give him away by gift or will. 
Let us test this point by a very plain parable. Here is a 
very valuable commodity; and here are two claimants for 
it — a white man and a black man. The commodity is the 
body of the black man. The white man says, "it is mine." 
The black man says, "it is mine." Now, the question is, if 
every man had his own, to whom would that black body 
belong ? The claim of the black man to his own body is 
just this : God gave him his own body. He holds it by 
God's grant. Will any one say, he came by his body in an 
illegal manner ? Does any man suspect, that he played the 
knave and purloined his limbs ? It must be admitted, the 
negro has a pretty good prima facie claim to his own body. 
If any man thinks he has a better, the onus probandi lies on 
him. 

Next we come to the claim of the white man to the body 
of the black man. What is the foundation of your right ? 
It shall be the best that the case will admit of. You 
received him from your father. Very good ! Your father 



THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 97 

bought him from a neighboring slaveholder. The slave- 
holder bought him from a trader, in the District of Colum- 
bia. The trader bought him from a man-merchant in Africa. 
But how did the man-merchant obtain the black man ? He 
stole him; he kidnapped him. The very root of your claim 
is theft, robbery, violence, inconceivable wickedness. If any 
thing ever was proved on earth by evidence, it was proved, 
and is now universally acknowledged, that the method of 
obtaining slaves in Africa was theft, robbery, violence, man- 
stealing, and murder. If your slave came direct from 
Africa your right to his person is absolutely nothing. But 
your claim to the child born in Kentucky, Virginia, or Mary- 
land is still less. The new-born infant has done — could have 
done — nothing to forfeit his right to freedom. And to talk 
about rights, justice, equity, and law, as connected with 
slavery, is to talk downright nonsense. If we had no 
interest in the case, and were only speaking of the conduct 
of other nations or individuals, we would all use the same 
language ; and we should all speak of slavery as we now 
speak of the piratical slave-trade — that is, we would call 
slavery in the United States rank, naked, flagrant, and un- 
disguised injustice. Whatever may be the excuse for the 
master against the cruel slave-laws which first enslaves the 
infant, and then forbids his emancipation, he can pretend to 
no claim to the person of a child because he happens to be 
born of a slave mother, who, in her turn, was unjustly 
deprived of her freedom, and prevented from exercising her 
just right to it. (See Mr. James Buxton's speech before 
house of Parliament, May 15, 1823, p. 19. London, 1823.) 
1G. The slaveholder, therefore, has no just title to the 
slave ; but, on the other hand, the slave has a just title to 
himself. Property that is stolen, or taken by unjust violence, 
though it pass through a thousand hands, even by honest 
purchase, still belongs to the original owner; and to him, 
according to the plainest principles of justice, it must revert. 

9 



98 THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 

The ancestors of the Africans were originally free, but were 
unjustly seized and sold into bondage ; and, by an unjust 
and arbitrary power, their offspring are still enslaved, and 
are the same as stolen property. As no one had a right to 
steal them, so no one since has had any just right to sell, 
buy, or hold them as slaves, and the title to them is prop- 
erly the title to stolen property, the owner of which is 
present, is undoubtedly known, and now claims it, as in the 
case of the black and white man, given heretofore, contend- 
ing about the owner of the black man's body. And. though 
the state authorizes such injustice, it is, nevertheless, unjust. 
The man Avho will be just no farther than the state compels 
him, is a rogue in his heart. And the man who will take 
away the liberty of another because the laws permit him, 
would also take the property of another, if similar permis- 
sion were given him. 

17. It is objected here, "that if slaveholders have no 
just title to their slaves, because they were bought from 
kidnappers, that argument would prove that our title to 
lands, which were by force or fraud wrested from the 
Indians, is also null." To this we reply, that justice and 
right law give stolen property to the true owner when he 
can be found. But if no owner is found, occupancy and 
possession give a just title. If an Indian can show as good 
a title to the land as the colored man can to his body, then 
the Indian should in justice have the land. The colored 
man was the original possessor of his own body; he now, 
by presenting his body, furnishes the true claimant. And 
as he was, without doubt, the original possessor, and is the 
present occupier, he is the true owner of himself; unless 
the claimant can show that he has forfeited his right to his 
liberty by a crime against the state. And even here the 
slave master is ousted, because the public criminal has for- 
feited his liberty to the state, and is, therefore, consigned 
first to the jail, and then to the penitentiary. The state is 



THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 99 

then his owner, for safe-lceeping , to prevent him from injuring 
society. Not, however, his owner for gain, but for the 
public good. Convicts are not sent to the plantations of 
masters to work for their benefit, but they are consigned to 
the public officers for safe-keeping. 

18. Besides, every case in which a child is made a slave, 
is a new case of enslavement, as original as that which 
occurs in the case of an African stolen from Africa; for 
the fact of the mother being a slave or free has nothing 
to .do with the matter. Every child enslaved is, therefore, 
an act of original theft, or robbery, very easily traced out, 
in almost all cases; and in the case of infants and minors, 
no man can ever claim them as slaves, because their infancy 
or minority are themselves proofs that they have never by 
crime forfeited their liberty, and, therefore, they now pos- 
sess it; and all such as even claim infants or minors as 
slaves, are, by prima facie evidence, guilty of attempted theft 
or robbery, and ought, therefore, to be punished severely 
by fine, imprisonment, or even death, for such an outrage 
on the liberties of the human race. 

19. The following, from the pen of Mr. Wesley, will 
close this chapter: 

"Had your father, have you, has any man living, a right 
to use another as a slave? It can not be, even setting rev- 
elation aside. Neither war nor contract can give any man 
such a property in another, as he has in his sheep or oxen. 
Much less is it possible that any child of man should ever be 
born a slave. Liberty is the right of every human being, 
as soon as he breathes the vital air; no human law can de- 
prive him of that right which he derives from the law of 
nature. If, therefore, you have any regard for justice, to 
say nothing of mercy or of the revealed law of God, ren- 
der to all their due. Give liberty to whom liberty is due — 
to every child of man, to every partaker of human nature. 
*et none serve you but by his own act and deed — rby his 



100 THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. 

own voluntary choice. Away with all whips, all chains, all 
compulsion. Be gentle toward all men, and see that you 
invariably do to every one as you would he should do to 
you." 



PART II. 

DEPRIVATION OF NATURAL RIGHTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS NATURAL RIGHTS PERSONAL LIB- 
ERTY PERSONAL SECURITY RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 

1. According to Blackstone — book i, ch. 1 — the primary 
and principal objects of law are jura, rights, and injuria, 
wrongs. Rights are either the rights of persons, which 
concern, and are annexed to, the persons of men; or they 
are rights of things, or such as a man may acquire over 
external objects, or things connected with his person. 

Wrongs also are, first, private wrongs, which, being an 
infringement merely of particular rights, concern individuals 
only, and in law are called civil injuries; and secondly, 
public wrongs, which, being a branch of general or public 
rights, affect the whole community, and in law are called 
crimes and misdemeanors. 

Slavery requires, in its very nature, acts of injustice, 
which infringe on the inalienable rights of mankind; while 
it also inflicts injuries which form a large class of great 
wrongs to the slave. So that slavery is a deprivation of 
just, inalienable rights; and also inflicts great wrongs or 
injuries on the innocent. We will first go through the lead- 
ing acts of injustice of which it is chargeable, and next con- 
sider the principal wrongs with which it is justly accused. 

2. Personal rights are either absolute or relative. Abso- 
lute rights are such as appertain to men as individuals; 
relative rights are those which belong; to men as members 
of society. The absolute rights of individuals are such as 
belong to their persons merely in a state of nature, and 
which every man is entitled to enjoy, whether out of soci- 
ety or in it. The absolute rights of man are usually 
summed up in one general appellation, and denominated 
the natural liberty of mankind. This natural liberty 

consists properly in a power of acting as one thinks fit, 

103 



104 PERSONAL LIBERTY AND SECURITY, 

without any consent or control, unless by the law of nature ; 
being a right inherent in us by birth, and one of the gifts 
of God to man at his creation. And this natural liberty 
can not be justly restrained by human laws, any farther 
than is necessary for the general advantage of the public. 

According to Blackstone — book i, p. 130 — the absolute 
natural rights are three in number; namely, 1. The right of 
personal security; 2. The right of personal liberty; 
and, 3. The right of private property. All these three 
great rights are the gift of God himself to every human 
being, as is clear from the Bible, and as the law of nature, 
as discovered by natural indications, plainly demonstrates. 
No one can alienate these rights from himself or others, or 
destroy or infringe them, without committing a crime against 
God's laws. Nor can they be lawfully taken from any 
human being, except as a punishment for the commission of 
crime. Nor can they be lawfully subjected to any human 
check or control, except so far as to prevent their exercise 
interfering with their use by others. 

The first absolute right, or that of 'personal security, con- 
sists, according to Blackstone, in a person's legal and unin- 
terrupted enjoyment of his life, his limbs, his body, his 
health, and his reputation. 

The second absolute right, or that of personal liberty, 
consists in the free and uninterrupted privilege of locomo- 
tion, or of going, staying, returning, whither, where, when, 
and as we please. 

The third absolute right, or that of private property, 
consists in the free use, enjoyment, and disposal of all his 
acquisitions, without any control or diminution. 

These three great absolute natural rights belong equally 
to all mankind, whatever their circumstances, ages, or con- 
ditions may be. 

The relative rights — vide Blackstone, book i, pp. 123, 
422 — which concern the relations that men sustain to each 



AND THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY. ' 105 

other, are, 1. The rights of master and servant — not master 
and slave; 2. Of husband and -wife; 3. Of parent and 
child ; 4. Of guardian and ward. All these relations and 
the rights connected with them are the appointment of God, 
and are not to be changed without great perversion and sin 
against God. 

There are two other classes of rights, which may be called 
civil rights, and conventional rights. The benefit, if 
not the possession, of these belongs to all mankind, and they 
ought to be possessed and used as just occasion requires, by 
all persons who can justly and lawfully possess them, and 
who are capable of using them properly. 

The civil rights are auxiliary to the great absolute natu- 
ral rights, and are necessary to protect and sustain them in 
full exercise. These are the rights to petition government 
for the redress of grievances; the right to apply to courts 
of justice for redress of injuries; the right to bear arms; 
the right of suffrage; the right to testify as witnesses; the 
right to serve as jurymen; the right to acquire education; 
the right to freedom of speech and of the press ; the rights 
of conscience ; and some others. The great absolute natural 
rights can not be protected and enjoyed without the assist- 
ance of these minor rights — as the histories of all despotic 
governments show. This fact, and the fact that we are by 
nature, on arrival at years of discretion, capable of exercising 
these rights, proves, by necessary implication, that these 
rights are also the gift of God, and of course inalienable. 
(Vide Blackstone i, 141.) 

The conventional rights are such as are acquired by 
contract or agreement with others — such as the right to 
marry ; the right to use the services or property of others ; 
the right of social intercourse ; the right to wages, rent, or 
profit; the right to collect our debts, etc., and a great va- 
riety of others, corresponding with the agreements which 
men make with each other. These rights, when properly 



10G PERSONAL LIBERTY AND SECURITY, 

acquired, are sacredly enforced by the law of God as other 
rights. 

All these rights, taken collectively, make up the sum total 
of what are called human rights. And they are so called 
because they belong to human beings only ; yet to all human 
beings. 

3. All these just rights of mankind are divine rights; 
that is, they are guaranteed to man by the laws of God. 
And any act which annuls or infringes on these natural or 
divine rights, is a wrong, crime, or sin; because it is an act 
against the law of God, and committed in contempt and 
violation of the law. The Bible recognizes and asserts the 
existence of the natural rights of men in the strongest 
manner, by denouncing and threatening with punishment 
those who violate them. A critical analysis of the denun- 
ciations of the Bible will show, that they are all directed 
against infringements of the security, the liberty, and the 
property of others, and of the relative and other just com- 
mon law rights of others. The technical distinctions and 
mere language of the common law are not found in the 
Bible; but the denunciations against the violation of these 
rights are far more frequent, minute, and severe in the Bible 
than the penalties of the common law are. And this could 
not be the case, had not these rights been inherited as the 
gifts of God, and guaranteed to them by the divine law. 

This matter is put in a very clear light by the distin- 
guished jurist, Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws 
of England, in the section of his introduction to that great 
work. We select the following from this illustrious man : 

"Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be sub- 
ject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a depend- 
ent being." (P. 39.) 

" And consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his 
Maker for every thing, it is necessary that he should in all 



AND THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 10*7 

points conform to his Maker's will. This will of his Maker 
is called the law of nature" (Id.) 

" The law of nature, being coeval with mankind, and dic- 
tated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to 
any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, 
and at all times ; no human laws are of any validity, if con- 
trary to this ; and such of them as are valid derive all their 
force and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from 
this original." (P. 41.) 

" Upon these two foundations — the law of nature and the 
law of revelation — depend all human law T s. That is to say, 
no human laws should be suffered to contradict these. To 
instance in the case of murder — this is expressly forbidden 
by the divine, and demonstrated by the natural law; and 
from these prohibitions arises the true unlawfulness of this 
crime. Those human laws that annex a punishment to it, 
do not at all increase its moral guilt, or superadd any fresh 
obligation in foro conscientice — by the decision of con- 
science — to abstain from its perpetration. Nay, if any 
human law should allow or enjoin us to commit it, w r e are 
bound to transgress that human law, or else w r e must offend 
both the natural and divine." (Pp. 42, 43.) 

"Those rights, then, which God and nature have estab- 
lished, and are therefore called natural rights — such as life 
and liberty — need not the aid of human laws to be more 
effectually invested in every man than they are ; neither do 
they receive any additional strength when declared by the 
municipal laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human 
legislature has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the 
i owner shall himself commit some act that amounts to a for- 
feiture." (P. 54.) 

As to bad laws, it may be said that it is the duty of the 
legislature to revise the enactments ; and it is the duty of 
the good citizen to obey them till this is done. On this 



108 PERSONAL LIBERTY AND SECURITY, 

important point, we quote the following, by Chief Justice 
Christian, attached to Blackstone's Commentaries : 

" Lord Chief Justice Hobart has also advanced that even 
an act of Parliament made against natural justice, so as to 
make a man a judge in his own cause, is void in itself — for 
jura naturce sunt immutabilia — and they are leges legum. 
(Hob. 87.) With deference to those high authorities, I 
should conceive that in no case whatever can a judge oppose 
his own opinion and authority to the clear will and declara- 
tion of the legislature. His province is to interpret and 
obey the mandates of the supreme power of the state. 
And if an act of Parliament — if we could suppose such a 
case — should, like the edict of Herod, command all the 
children under a certain age to be slain, the judge ought to 
resign his office rather than be auxiliary to its execution ; 
but it could only be declared void by the same legislative 
power by which it was ordained. If the judicial power 
was competent to decide that an act of Parliament was void 
because it was contrary to natural justice, upon an appeal 
to the house of lords, the inconsistency would be the con- 
sequence that, as judges, they must declare void what, as 
legislators, they had enacted should be valid." 

The learned judge himself declares, in p. 91, "If the 
Parliament will positively enact a thing to be done which is 
unreasonable, I know of no power in the ordinary forms of 
the Constitution that is vested with authority to control it." 
(1 Black. Com., Introduction, sec. ii, p. 41, note 3.) 

Now slavery annuls and tramples on all the natural rights 
granted to all men by their Creator. It is a tremendous sin ; 
but, like many other sins, such as murder, idol worship, etc., it 
has been common in all barbarous ages and nations. It is a 
heathenish and barbarous cruelty, utterly inconsistent with 
enlightened and pure Christianity. The following principles 
of the common law, in addition to those given by Blackstone, 
may be perused to advantage, before we proceed further : 



AND THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 109 

"The law favors liberty." (Wood. Coke.) 

"What is invalid from the beginning, can not be made 
valid by the length of time." (Noyes' Maxims, p. 3.) 

"The law, therefore, which supports slavery, and opposes 
libert} r , must necessarily be condemned as cruel ; for every 
feeling of human nature advocates liberty. Slavery is in- 
troduced through human wickedness ; but God advocates 
liberty by the law which he has given to man. Wherefore, 
liberty, torn from man, always seeks to return to him ; and 
it is the same with every thing which is deprived of its 
native freedom. On this account it is, that the man who 
does not favor liberty must be regarded as impious and 
cruel; and hence tlie English laiv always favors liberty." 
(Chancellor Fortescue. De Caudibus Legum, c. 42, p. 101.) 

4. Slavery is at variance with personal liberty, the abso- 
lute, natural, inherent right of all men. 

Slavery deprives a man of himself, and makes him a 
chattel or thing. The slave, being a "personal chattel," is 
at all times liable to be sold absolutely, or mortgaged, or 
leased, at the will of his master. He may be left by will 
to heirs, and taken by creditors or legatees. 

No restraint, except a partial one in Louisiana, is imposed 
upon the sale and transfer of slaves, not only at the will of 
his master, but against his will, as in sheriffs' sales, when 
the slaves are seized to satisfy debts. Husbands and wives 
are separated. Parents and children are separated. 

The slave is regarded as property, and sold as such, just 
as a horse, cow, or sheep is sold. He is sold by auction, at 
the pleasure of the master, or by the sheriff when seized as 
debt, in connection with horses, cattle, land, or any thing 
else. He may be sold without any regard to the relations 
of husband, wife, parent, child, brother, sister. He may be 
bartered for goods, sheep, horses, cotton, or any thing else ; 
and all these things are done constantly in the south. Ad- 
vertisements of such sales meet the eye in every southern 

10 



110 PERSONAL LIBERTY AND SECURITY, 

paper. And there are in all the regions of slavery, slave- 
merchants, both of the wholesale and retail classes ; and 
this is part and parcel of the system of slavery. And 
whenever there are scruples of conscience against this traffic, 
the scruples are properly against the system of slavery ; and 
the very existence of these scruples, Avhich are very common 
among conscientious slaveholders, proves that a good con- 
science is at war with slavery, as a sinful system, because it 
provides for and authorizes such sales, and does not prevent 
them. 

Against this essential element of slavery, which makes 
man property, we furnish the following objections : 

(1.) The holding of man as property is contrary to the 
right idea of property. What one man owns can not belong 
to another. The consequence, then, of holding a man as 
property is, that he can have no right to himself. His 
limbs, his mind, his strength, belong to another, and not to 
himself; all of which is absurd. 

(2.) The inalienable rights of man are violated by slavery, 
especially his liberty, because he becomes entirely in the 
power of another, by the action of slavery ; and hence his 
natural liberty is destroyed. 

(3.) If one man be sold as property, so may all men, or 
any man ; for if the right to liberty is founded, not on the 
essential attributes of men, as rational and moral beings, 
but on certain adventitious circumstances, then every human 
being, by a change of circumstances, may be enslaved, and 
treated as property. 

(4.) Making men property leads to treating them as 
property. Hence the cruel and degrading treatment which 
slaves often receive from their masters. They are called 
stock; children are called increase; mothers are called breed- 
ers. Such is the phraseology of slavery. Mr. Summers, 
of Virginia, in the Legislature of that state, on January 26, 
1832, says: "When, in the sublime lessons of Christianity, 



AND THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY. Ill 

he — the slaveholder — is taught to do to others as he 
would have others do to him, he never dreams that the 
degraded negro is within the pale of that holy canon." 
Jefferson, in his letter to Mr. Coles, of August 25, 1814, 
says of slaveholders : " Nursed and educated in the daily 
habit of seeing the degraded condition, both bodily and 
mental, of these unfortunate beings, few minds have yet 
doubted that they are as legitimate subjects of property as 
their horses or cattle." 

(5.) Hebrew servants were not property. Children were 
sometimes taken for their parents' debts ; but there is no 
instance of servants seised for the debts of their masters. 
Various kinds of property were levied on by creditors ; ser- 
vants were not. Lost property was to be restored to the 
owner; runaway servants not. Since, therefore, servants 
were not liable to the ordinary uses of property among the 
Hebrews, we may conclude they were not considered 
property. 

If it be a violation of the rights of man to deprive men 
of their political freedom, the injustice is much more flagrant 
when we rob them of personal liberty — as is the case with 
the slave. He has no right to his wife and children, nor 
even to himself. His very body, his muscles, his bones, his 
flesh, are all the property of another. The movements of 
his limbs and hands are regulated by the will of his master. 
If he has mental qualifications, skill, and dexterity, these 
too are his master's. He may be sold like a beast, or like 
the cotton, or sugar, or rice which his sweat and toil earn. 
He may be transported in chains, like a felon. He may be 
whipped and tormented in endless ways of punishment. 
Nay, if he is religious and pious, the grace of God in him 
is also sold, and his price is enhanced even by this as well 
as by his muscular strength, or his superior skill in some 
handcraft. A religious slave is of more value than a vicious 
one, and sells for more. Nay, if he be a preacher, his value 



112 PERSONAL LIBERTY AND SECURITY, 

is still greater, because of his influence on the morals and 
industry of his fellow-slaves. The deprivation of personal 
liberty is so complete that it destroys the rights of con- 
science. Slavery arms the master Avith power to prevent 
his slave from worshiping God according to the dictates of 
his conscience. The master may legally restrain his slaves 
from assembling to hear the instructions of divine truth. 
The condition of a subject is enviable, compared to that of a 
slave. Theirs is a political yoke, and is light, compared 
with the heavy personal yoke which bears down the op- 
pressed slave. 

We will here insert an extract from Lord Brougham's 
speech before the British Parliament, on the subject of West 
India emancipation, delivered July 13, 1830; and another 
extract from Buxton : 

"Tell me not of rights. Talk not of the property of the 
planter in his slaves. I deny the right. I acknowledge not 
the property. The principles, the feelings of our common 
nature rise in rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to 
the understanding or to the heart, the sentence is the same 
that rejects it. In vain you tell me of laws that sanction 
such a claim. There is a law above all the enactments of 
human codes — the same throughout the world — the same 
in all times — such as it was before the daring genius of 
Columbus pierced the night of ages, and opened to one 
world sources of power, wealth, and knowledge ; to another 
all unutterable woes : such it is at this day. It is the law, 
written by the finger of God on the heart of man ; and by 
that law, eternal, unchangeable, while men despise fraud, 
and lothe rapine, and abhor blood, they shall reject with 
indignation the wild and guilty fancy, that man can hold 
property in man. In vain you appeal to treaties — to cove- 
nants between nations. The covenants of the Almighty, 
whether the old covenant or the new, denounce such unholy 
pretensions. To those laws did they of old refer, who 



AND THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 113 

maintained the African trade. Such treaties did they cite, 
and not untrul}- ; for by one shameful compact you bartered 
the glories of Blenheim for the traffic in blood. Yet, in 
despite of law and of treaty, that infernal traffic is now 
destroyed, and its votaries put to death, like other pirates. 
How came this change to pass? Not assuredly by Parlia- 
ment leading the way ; but the country at length awoke ; 
the indignation of the people was kindled ; it descended in 
thunder, and smote the traffic, and scattered its guilty 
profits to the winds. Now, then, let the planters beware ! 
Let their assemblies beware ! Let the government at home 
beware ! Let the Parliament beware ! The same country 
is once more awake — awake to the condition of negro 
slavery ; the same indignation kindles in the bosom of the 
same people ; the same cloud is gathering that annihilated 
the slave-trade ; and, if it shall descend again, they on 
whom its crash may fall will not be destroyed before I have 
warned them ; but I pray that their destruction may turn 
away from us the more terrible judgments of God!" (Lon- 
don Antislavery Reporter, vol. iii, pp. 332, 333, for July, 
1830.) 

"Is there no difference between a vested interest in a 
house or a tenement and a vested interest in a human being ? 
no difference between a right to brick and mortar and a 
right to the flesh of man? a right to torture his body and to 
degrade his mind at your good will and pleasure ? There is 
this difference : the right to the house originates in law, and 
is reconcilable to justice ; the claim — for I will not call it a 
right — to the man originated in robbery, and is an outrage 
upon every principle of justice and every tenet of religion." 
(Speech of Fowel Buxton in the British Parliament.) 

"The owners of slaves are licensed robbers, and not the 
just proprietors of what they claim : freeing them is not de- 
Driving them of property, but restoring it to the right owner. 
It is suffering the unlawful captive to escape. It is not 

10* 



114 PERSONAL LIBERTY AND SECURITY, 

wronging the masters, but doing justice to the slave — 
restoring him to himself. Emancipation would only take 
away property that is its own property, and not ours — prop- 
erty that has the same light to possess us as we have to 
possess it — property that has the same right to convert our 
children into dogs, and calves, and colts, as we have to con- 
vert theirs into beasts — property that may transfer our 
children to strangers by the same right that we transfer 
theirs." (Dr. Rice, speech before the Kentucky Convention 
which framed the Constitution of the state.) 

5. Slavery is at war with the inalienable natural right of 
holding property and enjoying it. 

It is the absolute, inherent right of every man to exercise 
the privilege of acquiring, holding, enjoying, and disposal of 
all his honest acquisitions, without any control or diminution, 
under such restraints of law and constitution as preserve 
the same inherent right in the same degree to all others. 

(1.) At the creation of man God gave him, in the distri- 
bution of his gifts, no right to hold property in man; but 
he did give him a right to possess property in other portions 
of the creation. He gave man a right to acquire and hold 
property in land, and in beasts, and to the proceeds of his 
own labor. All men are set over the works of God's hands, 
and have an equal right to acquire and hold property; and 
consequently man can not have the right to hold property 
in his fellow-men, or in that which is properly another's. 
The Bible is full of denunciations against those who with- 
hold from others the fruit of their exertions. "Woe unto 
him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness and hrs 
chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor's service with- 
out wages, and giveth him not for his work," Jer. xxii, 13. 
See also James v, 4; Lev. xix, 13; Deut. xxiv, 14, 15. A 
wrong act does not become right because it is practiced 
often and on thousands ; nor because it is done systematic- 
ally and by authority of the laws of the land. None of 



AND THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 115 

these things can excuse us for wronging our neighbor of the 
fruit of his labor. 

(2.) "Slaves have no legal rights of property in things 
real or personal, and whatever property they may acquire be- 
longs, in point of law, to their master." (Stroud, pp. 45-50.) 
This is the substance of the slave laws, with scarcely any 
modiiications from the stern proposition in which Mr. 
Stroud expresses it, as any one may see, who will consult 
the authorities quoted or cited by him; and all this is 
confirmed by the decisions of courts. The general practice, 
too, comports with law and the judicial decisions; and 
those who practice differently are suspected, and must act 
with due caution, or, at least, they act independently, or in 
opposition to the laws in the case. 

As stated above, nothing is clearer, from the Bible, than 
that a man has a right to the avails of his own labor. 
This, in reason, is founded on the right a man has to 
himself, and, of course, to all that he himself can honestly 
acquire. But as slavery deprives a man of himself, it, of 
necessity, deprives its victim of the exercise of himself, and 
all the fruits of that exercise. We may notice the extent 
of this robbery, in some of its leading particulars. In 
general, slaves are deprived of the comforts and conven- 
iences of life, suitable to rational, intelligent, and moral 
beings. We will notice some of the particulars embraced 
under this general head. 

(3.) "The master may determine the kind, and degree, 
and time of labor, to which the slave shall be subjected." 
(Stroud, pp. 2G-30.) 

In most of the slaveholdin^ states the laws are silent on 
the time employed in labor — the states of Georgia, South 
Carolina, Louisiana, and Mississippi excepted. 

The laAv of Georgia forbids " the requiring greater labor 
from such slave or slaves than he, she, or they are able to 
perform." But, as the testimony of a colored person can 



110 PERSONAL LIBERTY AND SECURITY, 

not be received against a white person, and because the 
charge, in this case, is of a criminal nature, every thing 
must be strictly proved. The law itself must be construed 
strictly. It is next to impossible to convict the master in 
such cases. 

In the negro act of South Carolina, of 1740, the pre- 
amble declares, "Whereas, many owners of slaves, and 
others who have the care, management, and overseeing of 
slaves, do confine them so closely to hard labor, that they 
have not sufficient time for natural rest." The act then 
prescribes the labor not to exceed "fifteen hours in twenty- 
four hours, from the 25th of March to the 25th day of 
September; or more than fourteen hours in twenty-four 
hours, from the 25th day of September to the 25th day of 
March ;" and the penalty for such offense is from five to 
twenty pounds currency. 

In Louisiana, "the slaves shall be allowed half an hour 
for breakfast, during the whole year. From the 1st day 
of May to the 1st day of November they shall be allowed 
two hours for dinner; and from the 1st day of November 
to the 1st day of May, one hour and a half for dinner. 
Provided, however, that the owners who will themselves 
take the trouble of causing to be prepared the meals of 
their slaves, be, and they are hereby authorized to abridge 
by half an hour per day the time fixed for their rest." 
The laws of both Louisiana and South Carolina, as well as 
those of Georgia, are wholly inoperative, and must give 
way before the cupidity of the master." 

The fifteen hours a day allowed by South Carolina is an 
excessive amount of labor. The hard-working laborers of 
Europe are mostly confined to ten hours a day. The Leg- 
islatures of Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia have decided 
that convicts shall not work more than "eight hours in the 
months of November, December, and January; nine hours 
in the months of February and October; and ten hours in 



AND THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 11 7 

the rest of the year." Thus the convicts in prisons, who 
are convicted felons, whose punishment was designed to 
consist principally of hard labor, are not worked over ten 
hours a day at most, and on an average about nine. Yet 
the slave of South Carolina, under a law professing to ex- 
tend humanity toward him, may be subjected to unremitting 
toil for fifteen hours within the same period. 

(4.) Slavery deprives a man of the fruits of his own 
labor. The labor of the hands is the principal source of 
profit to a very large portion of the human family ; and to 
deprive them of this is to deprive them of every thing. 
And were it even true, that the slave does less work than 
the free laborer, the case is not altered; because slavery 
robs a man of the fruit of what he does, whether more or 
less. To say he has an equivalent in food and clothing, is 
not true ; because no master apportions work in proportion 
to the value of food and clothing. Nor will it do to affirm 
that the equivalent is rendered to the wife and children of 
the slave ; because the slave properly has no wife or children, 
for these belong to his master. Nor will the equivalent 
be rendered by provision for sickness or old age; because 
the slave never agreed to work all his days for such a con- 
sideration ; and the master exacts for himself and his family 
an excess beyond the remuneration that would be paid in 
food, clothing, and the other considerations mentioned above. 
The labor of the slave is exacted that the master and his 
family should live by it, and that they might live in luxury 
and idleness. The slave must work hard and be always 
poor, that his master and family may be rich and idle. It 
is true, the slave can not be made to do the work of a free- 
man, because he wants the spirit and motive of a freeman. 

(o.) The slave is not only made property himself, de- 
prived of the right to hold property, and robbed of the 
fruits of his own labor, but, as a consequence, he is de- 
prived of the comfortable enjoyments of life. His food, 



118 PERSONAL LIBERTY AND SECURITY, 

his clothing, his dwelling — every thing pertaining to him — 
are all of inferior quality. His clothing is mostly of poor 
quality, or such as his master deems dishonorable longer to 
wear. His dwelling is rude, uncomfortable, as the mere 
arbitrary gift of his master. His food is either scanty or 
of inferior quality ; or if good, it is mostly the offals of his 
master's table. 

(6.) Slavery deprives men of wages. This is every- where 
in Scripture forbidden. 

(7.) Hence, slavery is a system of robbery. The master 
may not design this, or be conscious of having done such 
a wrong to the slave. As the slave, according to slave 
laws, is considered as having nothing, the slaveholder does 
not suspect himself of robbery. It is not, however, true, 
that the slave possesses nothing; for he has a soul and 
body, the gift of God; and, as his soul and body are his 
own, so also is his mental skill and bodily force his own ; 
and the fruit of his labor is his own. To take these 
from the slave — the fruit of his labor and skill — is in fact 
to rob him. To take from a man his whole estate, the fruits 
of years of toil, would be a great wrong. But this would 
be a small offense compared with seizing the man himself, 
and appropriating to our use his limbs, faculties, strength, 
labor, by which all property is obtained. 

Nor can it be justly said that the slave receives an equiv- 
alent, that he is fed and clothed, and is not, therefore, 
robbed. But suppose another to wrest from us a valuable 
possession, and pay his own price — we would think ourselves 
robbed, and the law would pronounce such a man a robber. 
Besides, will the supposed equivalent be any thing like just, 
when the laborer himself is held as property, and all his 
earnings are declared to be the property of his master? 

If it be said that many masters do render an equivalent 
for the labor of the slave, as to property — no doubt this is 
true in some respects — still, human rights are denied. The 



AND THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 119 

slave lies wholly at the mercy of another; and this, in most 
cases, will result in wrong. Besides, there can be no equiv- 
alent for owning the slave himself, except to restore him to 
himself; that is, by setting him free. To pay him for his 
labor merely, will barely discharge the debt due to labor, 
and this alone. His restoration to liberty is the only equiv- 
alent that can be rendered for the wroncr of slavery, which 
robs a man of himself first, and then proceeds next to 
deprive him of the fruits of his labor. 

6. Slavery is at variance with the right of personal secu- 
rity. Personal security, an absolute, inalienable right of 
man, secures to him the free and uninterrupted enjoyment 
of his life, his limbs, his body, his health, and his reputation. 

Life is the immediate gift of God, and is a right inherent 
by nature in every individual. 

A man's limbs, as well as his other members, are also the 
gift of God, to enable him to protect and provide for him- 
self and family. 

The life and members of a man are of such high value 
in the estimation of all just law, that it pardons homicide 
if committed in order to protect them. And even deeds and 
contracts formally executed, if forced by a well-grounded 
apprehension of losing life or members of the body, in case 
of non-compliance, may be afterward voided. Just law 
not only regards life and members, and protects every man 
in the enjoyment of them, but also furnishes him with every 
thing necessary for their support. 

The natural life, being the immediate gift of God, can 
not justly be disposed of or destroyed by any individual, 
neither by the person himself nor by any other of his fel- 
low-creatures, merely upon their own authority. Yet, by 
the Divine permission it may be forfeited for the breach of 
those law r s of society which are enforced by the Divine 
authority, and called capital punishments. 

The security of his reputation or good name from the 



120 PERSONAL LIBERTY AND RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 

arts of detraction and slander, are rights to which every 
man is entitled by reason and natural justice; since without 
these it is impossible to have the perfect enjoyment of any 
other advantage or right. (See Blackstone, book i, pp. 
129-134.) 

The laws of slavery have little regard to the security of 
life, the members of the body, health, and reputation of the 
slave, that he may enjoy them; and hence these, in refer- 
ence to the ownership of them by the slave, are held in 
low esteem by slave laws, and, therefore, are slightly secured 
to their rightful owner, or, rather, they are not thus secured 
at all. The principal security for the life, body, health, and 
reputation of the slave is for the benefit of the master, 
either to enrich him, or accommodate him, or minister to 
his passions. 



DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS EDUCATION. 121 



CHAPTER II. 

DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS EDUCATION. 

1. The benefits of education are withheld from the 
slave. This is done by express statutary laws, making- it 
penal to teach him to read or write, or aid in doing it, or 
causing it to be done, as no provisions are made for the 
instruction of the slave. Or where no express laws forbid 
instruction, custom governs, and the custom is to let the 
slaves grow up without any instruction from books. Hence, 
the general sentiment in the skive states, whether produced 
by law or usage, or both, well comports with what Sir 
William Berkley, Governor of Virginia in 1671, said: "I 
thank God that there are no free schools nor printing- 
presses, and I hope we shall not have them these hundred 
years." 

In no country is education more highly valued, or its 
benefits more generally diffused, than in the United States. 
The constitutions of nearly all the states provide for semin- 
aries and schools, adequate to the wants of all. And the 
common schools of the free states are truly the colleges of 
the people. 

2. A different policy grew up with the growth of the 
slave states. In none of these is there any provision made 
by law, for the education of persons of color, whether 
slaves or freemen. On the contrary, the benefits of educa- 
tion are withheld from the slave, and, of consequence, from 
the free colored man. 

South Carolina was first in legislation to continue the 
ignorance of the slaves. As early as 1740, this state, by 
statute, enacted that slaves should not be taught to read or 
write, or employed as scribes in any manner of writing, un- 
der the penalty of £100 fine. (Stroud, p. 88.) 

In 1S00 South Carolina enacted, that it would be an 

11 



122 DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS EDUCATION. 

"unlawful assembly" for any slaves or free negroes, either 
by themselves or with white persons, "to meet together for 
the purpose of mental instruction," under a penalty of 
"twenty lashes upon such slaves," etc. (Stroud, p. 89.) 

But the law of South Carolina, which took effect April, 
1834, and passed the previous winter, entitled "an act to 
amend the laws in relation to slaves and free persons of 
color," seems to be a union of all the former laws of South 
Carolina in this matter. We make the following extracts 
from this barbarous act : 

"Section 1. Be it by the honorable the senate, and the 
house of representatives, now met and sitting in General 
Assembly, and by the authority of the same be it enacted: 
If any person shall hereafter teach any slave to read or 
write, or shall aid or assist in teaching any slave to read or 
write, such person, if a free white person, upon conviction 
thereof, shall, for each and every offense against this act, be 
fined not exceeding $100, and imprisoned not more than six 
months ; or, if a free person of color, shall be whipped not 
exceeding fifty lashes, and fined not exceeding $50, at the 
discretion of the court of magistrates and freeholders before 
which such free person is tried; and if a slave, shall be 
whipped at the discretion of the court, not exceeding fifty 
lashes; the informer to be entitled to one-half of the fine, 
and to be a competent witness. And if any free person of 
color or slave shall keep any school or other place of in- 
struction, for teaching any slave or free person of color to 
read or write, such free person of color or slave shall be 
liable to the same fine, imprisonment, and corporeal punish- 
ment, as are by this section imposed and inflicted on free 
persons of color and slaves for teaching slaves to read or 
write. 

" Sec. 2. If any person shall employ or keep as a clerk, 
any slave or free person of color, or shall permit any slave 
or free person of color to act as a clerk or salesman in or 



DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS EDUCATION. 123 

about any shop, store, or house used for trading, such person 
shall be liable to be indicted therefor, and, upon conviction 
thereof, shall be fined, for each and every offense, not exceed- 
ing one hundred dollars, and be imprisoned not exceeding 
six months ; the informer to be a competent witness, and to 
be entitled to one-half of the fine." 

The things intended to be prevented by this act are, that 
no colored person, whether free or a slave, shall learn to 
read or write, or be clerics or salesmen. 

The acts punishable according to the act are, " to teach, 
or aid or assist in teaching colored persons to read or write, 
or to employ them as clerks or salesmen." 

The penalties inflicted on whites for transgressing this law 
are a fine of $100, and six months' imprisonment. The 
penalty on a free colored person is whipping, not to exceed 
fifty lashes, and fine, not to exceed fifty dollars ; and on a 
slave, fifty lashes. 

An act was passed in Georgia in 17Y0 similar to that 
passed in South Carolina in 1740, with the difference that 
the fine in Georgia was £20, in the place of £100. 

Virginia, in her revised code of 1819, reiterates former 
ljiws, as follows : " That all meetings or assemblages of 
slaves, or free negroes or mulattoes mixing and associating 
with such slaves at any meeting-house, or houses, or any 
other place, etc., in the night, or at any school or schools 
for teaching them reading or writing, either in the dav or 
night, under whatsoever pretext, shall be deemed an unlaw- 
ful assembly." (Stroud, p. 88.) This practically amounts 
to the same with the laws of South Carolina and Georgia. 

And in those states where laws may not be as stringent 
as those in South Carolina and Georgia, custom has become 
the law, and this is universally against the instruction of the 
negro. 

Besides, the life of the slave is entirely devoted to the 
service of his master, so that his time and attention are 



124 DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS EDUCATION. 

constantly devoted to his service. Laws make not only no 
provision for the instruction of the slave, but, on the con- 
trary, forbid it. The slave has neither books, instructor, nor 
encouragement to learn to read. Hence, he is doomed to 
remain forever ignorant of the benefits of education. 

3. The result of this treatment, as might be expected, is, 
that the slaves grow up in ignorance. 

In the eighth annual report for 1842, of the Association 
for the religious instruction of the negroes in Liberty county, 
Georgia, we find the following statements from the slave- 
holders themselves: "The ignorance of those who have not 
been brought up in the Sunday schools — and of such we 
have a large number — is astonishingly great, and my spirit 
sinks within me when I behold it, and sec how little is done 
to remove it," (p. 6.) "They [the negroes] are exceed- 
ingly ignorant, as a people, and consequently whatever there 
may be in outward appearance to strike the eye, is calculated 
to produce more impression upon them than the most pal- 
pable fact in the abstract," (p. 14.) 

The synod of Kentucky, in 1835, held, in their address, 
the following lan°;uao-e in reference to the education of 
slaves in Kentucky : "The present state of instruction among 
this race answers exactly to what we might thus naturally 
anticipate. Throughout our whole land, so far as we can 
learn, there is but one school in which, during the week, 
slaves can be taught. The light of three or four Sabbath 
schools is seen, glimmering through the darkness that covers 
the black population of a whole state. Here and there a 
family is found, where humanity and religion impel the mas 
ter, mistress, or children, to the laborious task of private 
instruction. But, after all, what is the utmost amount of 
instruction given to slaves? Those who enjoy the most of 
it are fed with but the crumbs of knowledge which fall from 
their master's table — they are clothed with the mere shreds 
and tatters of learning." (Pp. 7, 8.) 



DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS EDUCATION. 125 

4. The interests of the master prevent the education of 
the slave. The masters will ordinarily do nothing for the 
instruction of the slaves beyond what is necessary to make 
them profitable instruments in their hands. The arts of 
reading and writing, the elements of education, are ac- 
quirements which can not be allowed to the slave without 
diminishing his value as a laborer, facilitating his escape from 
bondage, and periling the life of his master : so that custom, 
if not the law of the land, commonly deprives him of edu- 
cation. Besides, the acquisition of knowledge requires, on 
the part of its possessor, both motive and exertion ; and the 
man who is to continue through life in bondage has no 
adequate motive of interest to induce him to the necessary 
exertion ; for knowledge or skill is not valuable to him, as 
to one who reaps the benefits of his attainments. Further- 
more, the acquisition of knowledge also requires facilities of 
books, teachers, and time, which depend on the will of the 
master; and those who desire to perpetuate slavery will 
never furnish these facilities. 

Hence, if slaves are educated it must increase the expense 
on the part of the master. But the true slaveholder looks 
on the slave as his property, and every dollar expended on 
him he esteems as lost, unless it contributes to increase his 
capacity for yielding him valuable service. The master will 
have them taught to work, and will ordinarily clothe and 
feed them, so as to enable them to perform their work to 
advantage. More than this need not be expected ; and Avhen 
philanthrophy would do more, stern prohibitory statutes, 
or the stronger force of general custom, prevent the educa- 
tion, not only of the slaves, but of all colored persons. 

5. But slavery deprives its victim of the inalienable right 
of education. The privilege of reading and of acquiring 
knowledge is a most valuable mft to those who are obliged 
to devote themselves, for the most part, to manual labor. 
But law and sterner custom make no provision for the 

11* 



126 DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS EDUCATION. 

instruction of the slave laborer ; nay, the severest penalties 
are incurred by those who even aid in the good work. And 
then the very ignorance, stupidity, and sensuality, induced 
by this unjust treatment, are pleaded as reasons why they 
should be thus degraded forever. 

G. The withholding of instruction is directly contrary to 
the Bible. The following texts declare this very clearly: 
" That the soul be without knowledge, it is not good," Pro v. 
xix, 2. Our Lord pronounced a woe upon the Jewish teach- 
ers because they took away the key of knowledge. " Woe 
unto you, lawyers ! for ye have taken away the key of 
knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that 
were entering in ye hindered," Luke xi, 52. And how can 
those obey the following command of Christ, when they are 
debarred from reading the Scriptures for want of the 
knowledge of reading : " Search the Scriptures ?" John v, 39. 
According to the old Testament, all were privileged to 
acquire knowledge without any restraint. Nay, on the 
contrary, all were encouraged to acquire knowledge, because 
of the great advantages to be derived from it. Indeed, 
every place in Scripture proclaims the excellence of truth, 
and the knowledge of truth; and constant exertions are 
enjoined in order to acquire knowledge. And a state of 
ignorance is in Scripture constantly condemned; and many 
of the instrumentalities of the Gospel, such as preaching 
teaching, and the written word, are expressly given and 
authoritatively enjoined, in order to remove the ignorance 
of mankind. 

The inference is therefore plain, that the laws and the 
customs of the slave states, either in forbidding or in not 
providing and enjoining that the slaves be educated, arc 
contrary to the Bible. Or, to vary the expression, the 
Bible is essentially opposed to slavery. That is, laws are 
necessary to support the system of slavery, which- are 
directly opposed to the principles of the word of God. 



DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS EDUCATION. 127 

Amd slaveholding legislators believe that if these laws 
should be repealed, the system could not stand. This can 
not be denied by any one. What a terrible overthrow 
would a good system of common schools, and a free press, 
among the slaves, do in the slave states! Slavery could 
not live two generations under such an influence. 

But slaveholders have no real belief that slavery is sanc- 
tioned by the Bible. If they believed so, the best thing 
they could do would be to teach all their slaves to read the 
Bible. If the relation of master and slave is one recognized 
in the Bible, then the Bible is the right book to put into 
the hands of the slaves; and the slave should immediately 
be taught to read, that he may read the Bible, which, they 
say, sanctions slavery. If the Bible never speaks of slavery 
as sinful, then the best thing that could be done to support 
slavery would be to teach all the slaves to read it, that 
slavery may have the sanction of the Bible, as some pretend 
to affirm that it has. 

7. The want of education among the slaves has a most 
disastrous influence on their character. The bad tree of 
slavery, in this, produces bad fruit. Knowledge is a part 
of God's image in man ; for this image consisted in knowl- 
edge, righteousness, and true holiness. God gave man in- 
tellectual power that it might be cultivated; and the system 
which degrades it is not of God. The slave, though living 
in a land of light, dwells in darkness. "No parent feels 
the duty of instructing him. No teacher is provided for 
him, but the driver, who breaks him almost in childhood to 
the servile tasks which are to fill up his life. No book is 
opened to his youthful curiosity. As he advances in years, 
no new excitements supply the place of teachers. He is 
not cast on himself — made to depend on his own energies. 
No striving prizes in life awaken his dormant faculties. Fed 
and clothed by others like a child, directed in every step, 
doomed for life to a monotonous round of labor, he lives 



128 DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS EDUCATION. 

and dies without spring to his powers, often brutally un- 
conscious of his spiritual nature. Nor is this all. When 
benevolence would approach him with instruction, it is 
repelled. He is not allowed to be taught. The light is 
jealously barred out. The voice, which would speak to 
him as a man, is put to silence. He must not even be ena- 
bled to read the word of God. His immortal spirit is sys- 
tematically crushed." (Channing on Slavery, p. 75.) 

The following sentiment, by Chancellor Harper, of South 
Carolina, on slavery, in the Southern Literary Messenger, 
October, 1838, is not correct: "It is by the existence of 
slavery, exempting so large a portion of our citizens -from 
the necessity of bodily labor, that we have leisure for intel- 
lectual pursuits and the means of attaining a liberal educa- 
tion." The statistics of literature will contradict this high 
assumption of the Chancellor. But whatever may be the 
leisure and attainments of southern slaveholders, the edu- 
cation of poor white persons is not provided for. Hence, 
their very ignorance renders them the more fit instruments 
for doing the will, and guarding the human property of the 
wealthier class. On the contrary, where slavery does not 
exist, the people literally partake in the government, and 
mighty efforts are made in behalf of general education. 
And the present state of New England is no more than a 
good beginning in what will yet be done in the free states, 
both in and out of New England. 

8. But it may be well to see some of the reasons which 
slaveholders give for preventing the intellectual improve- 
ment of the slaves. 

We may place foremost in the list the Rev. James Smylie, 
of the Mississippi presbytery, who wrote, Feb. 15, 1836, a 
reply to the letter of the Chilicothe presbytery, dated 
Nov. 28, 1835. In reply to the resolution of the Chilicothe 
presbytery, which affirms that a Church member is guilty 
of a great sin, and ought to be dealt with as for other 



DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS EDUCATION. 129 

scandalous crimes, "who shall advocate, or speak in favor 
of such laws as have been, or may yet be enacted, for the 
purpose of keeping the slaves in ignorance, and preventing 
them from reading the word of God," Mr. Smylie utters 
the following sentiments. After stating that the legislators 
of Mississippi and Louisiana never passed laws to foster 
ignorance of the word of God, but that these states have 
"laws, accompanied with heavy penal sanctions, prohibiting 
the teaching of slaves to read, and meeting the religious 
part of the reflecting community," he states as follows: 

"The passage of these laws, however hard their bearing 
on slaves, is a necessary effect, produced, as might have 
been foreseen, from an adequate cause. . . . The laws 
preventing slaves from learning to read are a fruitful source 
of much ignorance and immorality among slaves. The 
printing, publishing, and circulating abolition and emanci- 
pating papers in those states, were the cause of the passage 
of the laws. The ignorance and immorality occasioned by 
the laws, must legitimately be saddled on the laws, as the 
effect must be saddled on the cause. But the laws them- 
selves are an effect! Where, then, must they be saddled, 
with all the accumulated weight of guilt, but upon the 
cause? even upon the back of abolitionists and emancipa- 
tors? Upon whom, now, will they saddle them legiti- 
mately? Upon such great and good men as John Wesley, 
Jonathan Edwards, Bishop Porteus, Paley, Horsley, Scott, 
Clarke, Wilberforce, Sharp, Clarkson, Fox, Johnson, Burke, 
and a host of as good, if not equally-great men, of later 
date." (P. G3.) 

"The Legislatures, however, in view of the 'weeping, 
and wailing, and gnashing of teeth ' of northern aboli- 
tionists, and in view of the antiscriptural doctrines, which 
they were publishing and circulating with a zeal worthy 
of a better cause, have enacted laws, with heavy penal 
sanctions, for the purpose, not, as basely represented, for 



130 DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS EDUCATION. 

keeping the slaves in ignorance of the word of God, but 
for keeping them ignorant of antiscriptural doctrines — 
doctrines which, however dressed and decorated with the 
garb of ecclesiastical sanctity, and plausible but spurious 
sympathy, are, nevertheless, like the blasting mildew, with- 
ering and blighting every growing and flourishing vine in 
our beloved country. 

"I say abolition and emancipating; for, as Dr. Proudfit, 
Secretary of the New York Colonization Society, very justly 
remarks, 'they are one in object, differing merely in the 
mode of accomplishing that object.' 

"Abolitionists are aiming with one swoop to destroy 
their prey, while emancijxitors, more insinuating, prefer to 
cut its throat gradually. The object of neither emancipators 
nor abolitionists is to make the masters better by getting 
the Gospel to bear upon them, and thus ameliorate the 
condition of slaves, like Christ and his apostles, but to run 
beyond them, and, if possible, double-distance them on the 
field of Christian improvement." (Pp. 6*7, 68.) 

Dr. Fuller, in his reply to Wayland, p. 140, says: "As 
to intellectual cultivation, the laboring population in all 
countries have but little taste or time for literature ; but if 
our slaves were taught to read, I know no class of people 
employed in manual industry who would have more leisure 
for books." 

9. It is said that the ignorance of the slave is necessary 
for the protection of the master. This is true; and it is 
humiliating that slavery has ever existed, when it is such a 
barrier to human improvement. Slavery and knowledge 
can not live together. To enlighten the slave is to break 
his chains. Could he read, he would soon find in the 
Declaration of Independence, "that all men are created free 
and equal." All knowledge furnishes arguments against 
slavery. The weakness and ignorance of their victims form 
the only safe foundation on which injustice and oppression 



DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS EDUCATION. 131 

can rest. Slaveholders know that universal education must 
eventuate in universal emancipation. Hence their unjust 
laws, which take away the very key of knowledge. 

It is true, there is a necessity laid on the master to keep 
the slave in ignorance, in order to continue him a slave. 
And what stronger argument can there be against slavery ? 
How horrible must be the system, which, in the opinion of 
its strongest advocates, demands, as the necessary condition 
of its existence, that knowledge must be shut out of the 
minds of those who live under it, that they should be 
reduced as nearly as possible to the level of brutes or 
machines, and that the powers of their souls should be 
crushed! Slavery compels the master to degrade system- 
atically the mind of the slave — to war against human intelli- 
gence. Can such a system be supported, or even tolerated, 
without deep criminality? Is it marvelous that the list of 
worthies, given by the Rev. Mr. Smylie, should be the oppo- 
nents of so great a degradation of human nature? 

10. It is objected, that almost every-where the laboring 
classes are doomed to ignorance; or, as Dr. Fuller has it, 
"the laboring population in all countries have but little 
taste or time for literature." 

This is notably untrue of the free states, because the 
masses have not only a knowledge of reading and writinsr, 
but also of much useful knowledge, as history, geography, 
arithmetic, composition, etc., which is obtained in childhood 
and youth. And should these have even but little time, as 
Dr. Fuller states, this little, duly improved, will soon accu- 
mulate much useful knowledge. Who will compare with 
slaves the laborers, mechanics, and farmers of the free 
states, as to knowledge, without blushing? Indeed, from 
these same laboring classes of the free states, men of the 
greatest distinction in Church and state have arisen, to fill 
all the departments of life with usefulness and dignity. 
But Dr. Fuller adds, "But if our slaves were taught to 



132 DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS EDUCATION. 

read." If they were, as was said before, they would soon 
learn their rights, so that the injustice and wrongs of slavery 
could not be practiced over them. 

If the laboring classes of Europe are quoted, as they 
often are, to show the similarity of condition, in regard to 
intellectual improvement, the objection will not hold; be- 
cause, 1. Many, indeed large portions, of the laboring- 
classes of Europe receive the elements of common school 
education, and many of the most educated men were, in 
early life, of this class. 2. But it is derogatory to human 
nature, and truly worthy of slavery, to plead the remains 
of barbarism in Europe as the model for their imitation. 
All philanthropists and good men select the good examples 
after Avhich to copy; but the defenders of slavery select 
degradation, and the lowest forms of degraded humanity, 
on which to form, as models, a half, or a large portion of 
the community in which they live. If there were no other 
argument, in or out of the Bible, than this, derived as it is 
from the depraved standard of ignorant and oppressed 
communities, this alone ought to sink it forever in the judg- 
ment of all Christians and philanthropic men; and it does 
thus sink it. Even Dr. Fuller is unable to deliver slavery 
from the weight of this millstone hung about its neck. 
He suddenly drops the objection, by waiving it, and passing 
to another topic. And so must every one else who pleads 
for the ignorance, and therefore the degradation, of their 
fellow-creatures. 

11. Nor do the well-meant attempts recently made, of 
communicating oral religious instruction, at all meet the 
wants of the human mind ; because, 1. At best such instruc- 
tions are very limited in their range. They are confined 
altogether to religious instruction, leaving the mind unin- 
formed as to all other departments of knowledge. 2. Such 
instructions, too, are superficial, as they rarely enter into 
any discussions beyond the mere elements of religious truth; 



DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS EDUCATION. .133 

and these in a very slight degree, as is manifest from the 
catechetical text-books prepared to aid the teacher, but 
never designed to be put into the hands of slaveholders. 
3. Besides, the uncultivated minds of slaves are poorly pre- 
pared to receive the instruction thus communicated. 4. 
Add to all this, the few only are reached, while the many 
are utterly overlooked. Only a few of the slaveholders, 
where instruction is the most needed, will allow their slaves 
even this imperfect mode of teaching. Missionaries and 
others who resort to this good work are watched Avith jeal- 
ousy, and may at any time be prevented from prosecuting 
their good work. Nevertheless, even this oral instruction, 
if pure Gospel principles are inculcated, will do much good. 
Yet, we fear most of the teaching is on one side of the 
question, whether catechetically communicated, or from the 
pulpit. The duties of slaves, falsely called servants, are 
urged with assiduity ; while the duties of masters, especially 
slave-masters, are rarely touched, or in such a manner as 
to leave the grossest sins unreproved, much less actually 
corrected. 

12 



134 DEPRIVATION OF RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 



CHAPTER III. 

DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 

1. One of the plainest dictates of the Christian religion 
is a regard for the well-beW of our fellow-creatures. This 
is enforced as a duty, both in the Old and New Testaments. 
All true Christians believe that the knowledge of the pre- 
cepts and promises of Christianity will promote the happi- 
ness of men, both here and hereafter. Negroes are en- 
dowed with reason, have immortal souls, and are accountable 
to God for the deeds done in the body. It is the inalien- 
able right of every human being to worship God according 
to his own views of what is true. 

2. This riofht is recognized in the Bible. 

The authority of God in religion is superior to all other 
powers. "Whether it be right in the sight of God to 
hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For 
we can not but speak the things which we have seen and 
heard," Acts iv, 19, 20. " Then Peter and the other apos- 
tles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than 
man," Acts v, 29. 

And all are required to learn and receive the truth. 
"And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require 
of thee but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his 
ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the com- 
mandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command 
thee this day for thy good?" Deut. x, 12, 13. "Ye shall 
walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his 
commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, 
and cleave unto him," Deut. xiii, 4. 

We are also to judge and prove all things — receive the 
good and reject the bad. "Prove all things; hold fast 
that which is good," 1 Thess. v, 21. "Beloved, believe 



DEPRIVATION OF RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 135 

not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of 
God: because many false prophets are gone out into the 
world," 1 John iv, 1. 

All are required to search the Scriptures. "Search the 
Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal life : and 
they are they which testify of me," John v, 39. 

What we learn we are bound to retain. "Take fast 
hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is 
thy life," Prov. iv, 13. 

Conscience binds men to exercise these religious privi- 
leges. " Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the 
other: for why is my liberty judged of another man's 
conscience?" 1 Cor. x, 29. 

And it is a heinous sin to prevent or forbid others from 
obeying God. " Woe unto you, lawyers ! for ye have taken 
away the key of knowledge : ye enter not in yourselves, 
and them that were entering in ye hindered," Luke xi, 52. 

3. The right of every man to worship God according to 
the dictates of conscience is the great principle of Protest- 
antism and of liberty. Long and difficult was the struggle 
in asserting and securing this. It was partly obtained at 
the Reformation from Popery ; but only in part. The Pu- 
ritans contended for this in the times of Elizabeth, James, 
and Charles I. The Non-conformists and Quakers felt the 
want of this in the time of Charles II. The Quakers and 
Baptists contended and suffered for it in New England. 
To establish this has cost blood and suffering to no ordinary 
degree. 

4. This right is fully established by the principles of the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, and of the sev- 
eral states, except for the benefit of the colored race in the 
slave states. Both the Constitution of the United States 
and the constitutions of the several states assert this in the 
most unequivocal manner. To maintain and enjoy the right 
to worship God, where, when, and how they pleased — the 



136 DEPRIVATION OF RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 

right to hold what opinions they pleased — the early Eu- 
ropean settlers of the United States endured all the sacri- 
fices of a perilous voyage, and the hardship of settling a 
new country. An American citizen, whether at the north 
or south, prizes this beyond every other privilege. To 
maintain it he pledges "his life, his property, and his sa- 
cred honor." 

5. The slave, in every state where slavery exists, is prac- 
tically denied this right. He may have it, in part, by con- 
cession ; but he can never claim it as a right. Mr. Stroud, 
p. 90, expresses it thus: "The means for moral and re- 
ligious instruction are not granted to the slave ; on the 
contrary, the efforts of the humane and charitable to supply 
these wants are discountenanced by law." Whatever kind- 
ness may exist on the part of the master, this great privi- 
lege, so far as the law of slavery is concerned, is not 
secured to the slave. Every thing pertaining to the worship 
of God is in the hands of the master; and no slaves, ac- 
cording to the laws, can act freely in the worship of God. 
The world, in its worst times of oppression, has never seen 
any thing worse, or that more effectually interferes with 
the rights of conscience, than the slave laws of the slave 
states in regard to religion. 

In the preceding chapter we showed that mental instruc- 
tion, in general, is withheld from the slave. He can not, 
therefore, learn the Scriptures, except as a hearer; and yet 
there are few facilities afforded even for this. No time is 
secured to the slave by law, nor place provided. 

When the slave accompanies his master to Church, it 
is mostly for the convenience of his master. Besides, the 
rude mind of the slave can not comprehend, to advantage, 
discourses designed for the more enlarged capacity of the 
master. 

By a law of Georgia, white persons are fully protected 



DEPRIVATION OF RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 137 

in the exercise of religious worship ; yet the same law con- 
cludes in these words : " No congregation or company of 
negroes shall, under any pretense of divine worship, assem- 
ble themselves contrary to the act regulating patrols." 
And, according to the patrol law, " every slave which shall 
be found and taken at such meeting as aforesaid, shall and 
may, by order of such justice, immediately be corrected 
without trial, by receiving on the bare back twenty-five 
stripes with a whip, switch, or cow-skin." (Stroud, p. 92 ; 
Prince's Digest, 447.) 

In South Carolina the restraints on the religious privileges 
of the slaves are stringent enough. (Stroud, p. 93.) 

In Virginia, " all meetings, etc., of slaves, free negroes, 
and mulattoes, mixing, etc., with such slaves at any meeting- 
house, etc., or any other place, etc., in the night, under any 
pretext whatsoever, are declared to be unlawful assemblies, 
and the civil power may disperse the same and inflict corpo- 
real punishment on the offenders." (Stroud, p. 94.) Slaves 
may, however, attend at church, on any day of public wor- 
ship. 

Mississippi has adopted the law of Virginia, with a 
proviso that the master or overseer of a slave may, in 
writing, grant him permission to attend a place of religious 
worship, at which the minister may be white, and regularly 
ordained or licensed ; or, at least, two discreet and reputable 
white persons, appointed by some regular Church, or relig- 
ious society, shall attend. (Miss. Rev. Code, 390.) 

Can any man believe that it was the design of God and 
agreeable to the principles of holy Scripture, that such a 
system should be perpetuated for the good of society ? 
Can any man now believe that another might dictate to him 
how, when, where, he should worship God, what he should 
believe, and all other matters concerning religion? South- 
ern men would be the first to take up arms, if any man 

12* 



138 DEPRIVATION OF RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 

would impose on them such a restriction in regard to religion 
as they, by their laws, impose on the slaves and colored 
people. 

But let us examine this matter more narrowly. We 
maintain that slavery obstructs the means of grace, and 
tends to prevent the salvation of sinners. 

6. Slavery in a great measure deprives its subjects of 
religious instruction and the privileges of the Gospel. 
These may be ranged under the following heads: free 
access to the Scripture, a Gospel ministry, various other 
means of grace, etc. 

(1.) Either the laws or usages of the slave states prevent 
the slaves from free access to the Scriptures. We have 
seen that it is a necessary appendage of slavery to restrain 
the slaves from learning. But to learn to read the word of 
God is necessary in order to read it ; and reading it is an 
important means of knowing the will of God, revealed to 
mankind for their salvation. Therefore, to restrain any 
from the knowledge of God's written word, is a high insult 
to God, who gave us his revelation, that Ave might read 
it and acquire the knowledge of the way of salvation. 
Again : to prevent any of mankind from reading the word of 
God is to hinder their salvation, because it prevents the 
means leading to the end. Hence, it is sacrificing the sin- 
ner's salvation to the slaveholder's worldly gain. And, 
although no law may justly prohibit the reading of the 
Bible, yet law or custom does worse, by preventing the 
slave from reading, so that he can neither read the Bible 
nor any other book. The ignorance of the slave prevents 
him from reading the Bible and understanding its contents. 
The Bible may be before him ; but it is to him a scaled 
book. " The light shineth in darkness, but the darkness 
comprehendeth it not." 

(2.) The slaves are not effectually provided with the 
advantages of the ministry. They are, it is true, often 



DEPRIVATION OF RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 139 

permitted, and even encouraged, to attend Church, with their 
masters. But the instructions communicated on such occa- 
sions are, for the most part, above their capacities. They 
listen as to prophecies in an unknown tongue; and the 
preachers of their own color are mostly ill qualified to 
instruct them. 

If a slave does possess gifts and grace to preach, and the 
Church should license or ordain him, he is prevented by 
tyrannical power from going forth to preach the Gospel to 
every creature. If the Church would call the slave preacher 
from his subjection to his master to fill his office, the 
Church would be treated as a dangerous enemy, and if per- 
sisted in, the actors in the Church w r ould be treated with 
the highest severity. In most of the slave states the laws 
prevent any preachers of the Gospel from collecting the 
colored people into congregations, for the purpose of hearing 
the Gospel preached. And the colored people would be 
cruelly tortured did they attend such ministrations. Any 
privileges of hearing the Gospel must be given by the good- 
will of the master. And in no slave state can colored 
preachers be pastors of flocks. The office of colored 
preachers must be that of the lowest deaconship of the 
word. 

(3.) Social means of grace are but limitedly used by the 
slaves. Occasionally a w r hite family is found where slaves are 
taught to worship with them in their family prayers. But 
with most masters who attempt this, it is an abortive under- 
taking. The duties of the slaves, or their natural aversion 
to devotion, are barriers in the way. In their own cottages, 
the slaves rarely attend family devotions, and still more 
rarely do they, or can they, read the Bible. Yet God has 
not left himself without witnesses in this matter, whose tes- 
timony will, at the time appointed, condemn the conduct of 
many masters. 

Dr. Fuller argues, or rather evades the real issue, most 



140 DEPRIVATION OF RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 

Bophistically, on this point. In his letters, p. 140, he says: 
"Now, suppose a slave to have the word of God, and to 
employ all the means of grace, why should his moral im- 
provement be impossible because he labors for my benefit ?" 
Well, suppose he has the word of God — if he can not read it 
what good can it do him ? And as to his " enjoying all the 
means of grace," this is what is rarely the case ; and when 
he does enjoy these means, they are merely from the will of 
his master ; and many masters allow of no such privileges. 
Indeed, the means of grace allowed by masters are not 
allowed from the system of slavery, but accrue to the slave 
in spite of the system, and from a very different source; 
namely, the good- will of the master, and the force of anti- 
slavery principles counteracting the tendency of the system. 

Again: Dr. Fuller, p. 157, says "that duty is not the 
emancipation, but the instruction, moral and intellectual, of 
the slave; just as in a despotism, the duty is, not granting 
a free constitution, but improving the subjects." But the 
system of slavery in South Carolina, Mr. Fuller's own state, 
makes mental improvement in the slave a crime, both for the 
slave himself and the person who aids the slave in acquiring 
it. Hence, the moral and intellectual instruction of the slav 
must be derived from another source than the slave system 
But Mr. Fuller, all along in his letters, considers slavery as 
under the control of pious and intelligent masters ; without 
duly referring to its proper character as established by law, 
and practiced under law, which is the correct idea of slavery, 
and not the mitigated form of it as counteracted by the acts 
of benevolent masters. 

7. The restraint of slavery on the religious privileges of 
slaves is an open violation of the rights of conscience. 

(1.) This restraint violates the rights of conscience of the 
pious Christian whose duty it is to instruct the slaves in the 
principles of religion, and lead him to the experience of the 
privileges of Christianity. All Christians who enjoy the 



DEPRIVATION OF RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 141 

means of knowledge, are in duty bound, according to their 
stations and circumstances, to teach the ignorant the word 
of God. But the laws of slave states by fines and penalties 
prevent the free citizens from teaching the slaves to read the 
word of God, even though they found themselves bound by 
the word of God and their own consciences to instruct 
them. If private Christians attempt to teach the slaves on 
the Lord's day, they are violently prevented by bands of 
patrollers, who have authority to disperse the blacks if more 
than four or five are found together, except they are imme- 
diately under the eyes of masters or overseers. In some 
slave states the attempt would expose the teachers to fines 
and imprisonment. 

(2.) The restraint of slavery in the matter of religion is 
a violation of the rights of conscience of the slave. All 
mankind who have access to the Scriptures are bound to 
search them. This obligation is stringent upon all men. 
(John v, 39 ; 2 Tim. hi, 16.) But it is impossible to search 
the Scriptures, or to enjoy all those spiritual advantages, 
without learning to read. Suppose a slave feels it his con- 
scientious duty to learn to read the word of God, as many 
do — the attempt would be repelled by force, and if persisted 
in would expose him to torture. If a slave possess gifts to 
preach the Gospel, the restraint of slavery completely con- 
trols this. 

(3.) There are circumstances of peculiar malignity attend- 
ing the restraints of conscience imposed by slavery. 1. Pop- 
ish persecutors had the glory of God for their end, and 
thought they were doing God service in their persecutions. 
The end in view by slaveholders, in restraining the religious 
privileges of the slaves, is their own worldly advantage; 
because they know that slavery can not be long sustained 
without imperiously restraining the slaves from the means 
of knowledge. 2. Yet the occasion of persecution by the 
popish party was, in the main, the same with that under the 



142 DEPRIVATION OF RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 

dominion of slavciy. The Bible seems to be the occasion 
for both, in restraining the conscience. The cause of 
restraint in the slave states are the attempts made by con- 
scientious persons to teach the blacks to read the Bible, and 
attempts by the blacks themselves to learn to read, that 
they might use the Scriptures; but the slaveholders, who 
arc supported by law, imperiously withhold them from the 
use of the Scriptures, by restraining them from all means 
of learning to read. It amounts to the same in the end, 
whether the Bible is by force withheld from the people, or 
the people by force withheld from the Bible. 

And here we may quote the faithful testimony of the 
synod of Kentucky on this point. They say: "Still fur- 
ther, the deprivation of personal liberty is so complete, that 
it destroys the rights of conscience. Our system, as estab- 
lished by law, arms the master with power to prevent his 
slave even from worshiping God according to the dictates 
of his own conscience. The owner of human beings among 
us may legally restrain them from assembling to hear the in- 
structions of divine truth, or even from ever uniting their 
hearts and voices in social prayer and praise to Him who 
created them. God alone is Lord over the conscience. Yet 
our system, defrauding alike our Creator and our slaves, con- 
fers upon men this prerogative of Deity. Argument is un- 
necessary, to show the guilt and madness of such a system ; 
and do we not participate in its criminality, if we uphold it?" 

8. The interference of slavery with the religious privileges 
of Christians — whether in partaking of its advantages them- 
selves, or of inculcating it among those who are ignorant of 
it — is one of the most heinous sins that depraved human 
nature can commit. It is an insult to God, the Father, who 
has given his revelation to instruct man. It is a disparage- 
ment to Jesus Christ, who died to redeem man. It is doing 
despite to the Holy Ghost, by whose agency man is re- 
newed, enlightened, and sanctified. It is at variance with 



DEPRIVATION OF RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 143 

the Bible, because it takes away the key to the Bible, even 
when the Bible itself is not prohibited. It is a frustration 
to the Gospel ministry, in that it prevents entirely its preach- 
ing, or restrains it into a comparatively-inefficient instrument- 
ality. It throws serious obstacles in the way of Church 
discipline, and hems in all the operations of the Church of 
God. 

We will give the testimony of the synod of Kentucky on 
this point, in their address in 1835 : 

" But while the system of slavery continues among us, 
these means can never be efficiently and fully employed for 
the conversion of the degraded sons of Africa. Yet ' God 
hath made them of one blood ' with ourselves ; hath pro- 
vided for them the same redemption ; hath in his providence 
cast souls upon our care ; and hath clearly intimated to us 
the doom of him who seeth his brother have need and 
shutteth his bowels of compassion from him. If by our 
example, our silence, or our sloth, we perpetuate a system 
which paralyzes our hands when we attempt to convey to 
them the bread of life, and which inevitably consigns the 
great mass of them to unending perdition, can we be guilt- 
less in the sight of Him who hath made us stewards of his 
grace ?" 

9. The interference with the rights of conscience — espe- 
cially the total want of provision for the religious improve- 
ment of the slaves — is one of the worst features of the 
system. Already we have said a few words on the subject 
of oral instruction, but more especially in reference to its 
bearing: on intellectual culture. There is nothing of which 
slaveholders are more afraid, than sound religious instruc- 
tion. Hence they throw impediments in the way of pure 
Gospel instruction. Many in the south are now attempting 
to preach the Gospel to slaves — to establish schools daily or 
weekly — to conduct the labor and discipline of the plantation 
on Gospel principles. Yet none of the religious teachers 



144 DEPRIVATION OF RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 

arc allowed to employ any thing except oral instruction. 
There can be no religious assemblies except under the eye 
of the master, and no instruction except with his express 
approbation. 

10. And even when religion itself is ardently supported 
by slaveholders, the system of slavery so vitiates religious 
endeavors as to prejudice the minds of slaves against all 
true religion. 

A runaway slave, in 1841, assigned the following as the 
reason why he refused to commune with the Church of 
which he was a member, at the south. "The Church," 
said he, " had silver furniture for the administration of the 
Lord's supper, to procure which they sold my brother ! and 
I could not bear the feelings it produced, to go forward and 
receive the sacrament from the vessels which were the pur- 
chase of my brother's blood." 

"I have lived eight years in a slave state, (Va.,) and 
received my theological education at the Union Theological 
Seminary near Hampden Sidney College. Those who know 
any thing about slavery know the worst kind is jobbing 
slavery — that is, the hiring out of slaves from year to year, 
while the master is not present to protect them. It is the 
interest of the one who hires them to get the worth of his 
money out of them ; and the loss is the master's if they die. 
What shocked me more than any thing else, was the Church 
engaged in this jobbing of slaves. The college Church, 
which I attended, and which was attended by all the stu- 
dents of Hampden Sidney College, and Union Theological 
Seminary, held slaves enough to pay their pastor, Mr. Stan- 
ton, $1,000 a year, of which the Church members did not pay 
a cent. So I understood it. The slaves, who had been left 
to the Church by some pious mother in Israel, had increased 
so as to be a large and still increasing fund. These were 
hired out on Christmas day of each year — the day on which 
they celebrate the birth of our blessed Savior — to the 



DEPRIVATION OF RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 145 

highest bidder. These worked hard the whole year to pay 
the pastor his $1,000 a year; and it was left to the caprice 
of their employers whether they ever heard one sermon, for 
which they toiled hard the whole year to procure. This 
was the church in which the professors of the seminary and 
of the college often officiated. Since the abolitionists have 
made so much noise about the connection of the Church 
with slavery, the Rev. Elisha Balenter informed me the 
Church had sold this property and put the money in other 
stock. There were four Churches near the college Church 
that were in the same situation with this, when I was in that 
country, that supported the pastor, in whole or in part, in 
the same way ; namely, Cumberland Church, John Kirkpat- 
rick pastor; Briny Church, William Plummer pastor, (since 
Dr. P., of Richmond;) Buffalo Church, Mr. Cochran pastor; 
Pisgah Church, near the peaks of Otter, J. Mitchell pastor." 
(Rev. J. Cable, of la., May 20, 1846, in a letter to the Mer- 
cer Luminary.) 

13 



146 DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 

CHAPTER IV. 

DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 

1. As slaves are the property of others, and therefore 
things, and as they themselves can own no property, and 
especially because they can make no contracts, they can 
not contract matrimony. The association which takes place 
among slaves, though sometimes called marriage, is not 
properly marriage, but contubernium — a relation which has 
no sanctity, and to which no civil rights are attached. The 
laws of the southern states do not recognize marriage among 
the slaves, and of course do not enforce any of its duties. 
Indeed, slavery will not admit of any legal recognition of 
the marriage rite ; for the master's absolute right of prop- 
erty in the slaves must frustrate all regulations on the 
subject. In his disposal of them, were the laAvs of mar- 
riage in force, he would be no longer at liberty to consult 
merely his own interest. He could no longer separate the 
wife and husband, to suit the convenience and interest of 
the purchaser. And as the wife and husband do not always 
belong to the same owner, and are not often wanted by the 
same purchaser, the duties of marriage, if enforced by law, 
would frequently conflict with the interests of the master. 
Hence, all the marriage contracts that could ever be allowed 
to slaves would be "voidable" at the master's pleasure; and 
are constantly thus voided by slavery. Both slaves and the 
system of slavery consider the matrimonial engagement as 
a tiling not binding ; and the practice is in accordance with 
the theory. The slaves, to use their own phraseology, " take 
up with each other," and live together, as Ions as suite 
their own inclinations and convenience. 

The following is the law opinion of Mr. Dulaney, At- 
torney-General of Maryland: "A slave has never main- 
tained an action against the violation of his bed. A slave 



DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 147 

is not admonished for incontinence, or punished for fornica- 
tion or adultery — never prosecuted for bigamy, or petty 
treason for killing a husband being a slave, any more than 
admitted to an appeal for murder." (See Stroud, p. Gl.) 

2. Slavery annihilates the right of marriage. 

The master has power to prevent the marriage of his 
slaves, or separate them after marriage. This results from 
the right of property in man ; for the right to buy a thing 
implies a right to sell it again. And as a man in pur- 
chasing one slave is under no obligation of purchasing 
another, though it be the wife or child of the former, so 
it is in regard to the sale. As in procuring slaves origin- 
ally — whether by conquests in war, by kidnapping, by pur- 
chase, or by seizing innocent children, as now in the United 
States — no regard w r as paid to any of the relations of life, 
so no regard is had to these relations or their duties in the 
tenure by which slaves are now held. The slave laws do 
not recognize the relation of husband and wife, parent and 
child, brother and sister. 

There are thousands of instances in which conscientious 
masters would not separate husband and wife, parents and 
children ; but this can not be taken into the account in esti- 
mating the character of the system of slavery. If the 
master is in debt, the law, by its officers, separates man 
and wife, parents and children. If the owner of slaved 
dies, his children may separate the marriage contract; or 
the sheriff may do it by the strong arm of law, without 
asking the leave of heirs. 

The power of the master over the slaves sets aside the 
duties of marriage as enjoined in the holy Scriptures, 
although the husband and wife are not actually separated. 
The husband is declared to be the "head of the wife, as 
Christ is the head of the Church," (Eph. v, 23; 1 Cor. 
xi, 3,) and as such, has a right to rule in his family. The 
wife is commanded to be subject to her husband, to love 



148 DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 

him, to cherish him. "As the Church is subject to Christ, 
so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing," 
Eph. v, 24 and 33 ; Titus ii, 4, 5 ; 1 Peter hi, 1. It is the 
master, not the husband, that has the supreme power over 
the wife of the slave. The master, too, has "the power of 
enforcing obedience by punishments, in spite of the will of 
the husband. The power of the master extends, too, to 
her manner of employing her time, to her domestic ar- 
rangements, to her hours of labor and rest, to her food and 
raiment, etc. 

Here, too, the power of the master may not be exercised. 
He may not interfere with the relative duties of marriage ; 
but this is not to be traced to any mercy in the institution 
of slavery; for it has none. Nothing prevents the master 
from setting aside the w^hole law of God on the subject 
of matrimony. And the benevolence of humane masters, 
which prompts them to act toward slaves, not according 
to the essential laws of the system, but according to 
Scripture precepts, is one of the strongest protests against 
slavery in the world. Wherever Christian feeling and prin- 
ciples are at work, they rise up in array against the immo- 
rality and sin of parting husband and wife, or of obstructing 
the duties of the marriage relation. The same feeling and 
principles, properly carried out, would revolt — they do 
revolt — they will continue to revolt — against the whole 
system of slavery; so that, finally, it will be rooted out of 
the earth. The opposition to the branches will, in time, 
be turned against the stem and roots, so as to extirpate 
this high injustice from the face of the earth; that is, to 
destroy its branches, cut down the trunk, and then root out 
every vital root belonging to it, so that it will never germ- 
inate again. So it will be, for the mouth of the Lord hath 
spoken it. "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy 
mountain, saith the Lord." 

Mr. Rice, in answer to Mr. Blanchard's declaration, that 



DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 149 

slaves can not contract marriage, and that their children 
are illegitimate, uses the following language: "The mar- 
riage of slaves is as valid in the view of God's law as that 
of their masters. Marriage is a Bible institution. Will 
the gentleman point us to the portion of Scripture which 
makes recognition of marriage by the civil law necessary 
to its validity?" (Blanchard and Rice's Discussion on Sla- 
very, p. 35.) Again: he says, p. 55, "Point me to the 
part of Scripture which makes recognition of marriage by 
the civil law essential to its validity." Again: p. 75, 
"The marriage of slaves is, in God's law, as valid as that 
of their owners ; and it is as truly a violation of that law 
to separate the former as the latter." 

All this, on the whole, is true enough ; but it evades the 
force of the argument. Allowing, as Ave readily do, that 
marriage needs not mere civil regulations to make it valid, 
the difficulty is not removed ; for the civil laws of slavery, 
and the practice under them, completely annul marriage 
in three several ways: 1. By preventing, authoritatively, 
the slaves from entering into the marriage relation; 2. By 
interfering with the discharge of its duties, after entering 
on it; and, 3. By separating man and wife at the will of 
the master. All this is done. And Mr. Rice evades the 
argument of his opponent, on this point, as he constantly 
does, in the place of meeting him fairly; so that he is 
more the defender and apologist for slavery than any thing- 
else. 

3. Slavery tends to licentiousness, both among the slaves 
and their masters. 

(1.) The general concubinage among the slaves produces 
revolting licentiousness. On this the synod of Kentucky 
say: "We are assured, by the most unquestionable testi- 
mony, that their [the slaves] licentiousness is the necessary 
result of our system, which, destroying the force of the 
marriage rite, and thus, in a measure, degrading all the 



150 DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 

connection between the sexes into mere concubinage, solicits 
wandering desire, and leads to extensive profligacy. Our 
familiarity with this consequence of slavery, prevents us 
from reirardincr it with that horror which it would, under 
other circumstances, inspire. Without marriage we would 
herd together like brutes, but we could no longer live 
together like human beings. There would be no families, no 
strong ties of kindred, no domestic endearments, softening 
the manners and curbing the passions. Selfish, sensual, 
and unrestrained man, would exercise his reason only to 
minister to the more groveling propensities of his nature. 
Any set of men will approximate to this condition, just in 
proportion to their approximation to the practical abolition 
of matrimonial restraints. And certainly, never, in any 
civilized country, has respect for these restraints been more 
nearly obliterated, than it has been among our blacks. 
Thus, the working of our system of slavery diffuses a moral 
pestilence among its subjects, tending to wither and blight 
every thing that is naturally beautiful and good in the char- 
acter of man. Can this system be tolerated without sin?" 
This is the testimony of eye and ear witnesses, whose state- 
ments can not be called in question. 

Mr. Seabrook, of South Carolina, in 1834, said, "In gen- 
eral, the intercourse between servants is as unrestrained as 
the most unbounded ambition could desire. The daily 
business of the plantation having been finished, the power 
of the master practically ceases. He knows not, and appa- 
rently cares not, in what way the hours of the night are 
passed by his people." (See his Essay, Charleston, 1834; 
and Quarterly Antislavery Review for 1836, p. 127.) 

(2.) The licentiousness of the whites is a result flowing 
from the abrogation or frustration of marriage among the 
slaves. "A slave country," says Channing, "reeks with 
licentiousness. It is tainted with a deadlier pestilence than 
the plague. To hold females in slavery is necessarily fatal 



DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 151 

to the purity of a people. That females, entirely under 
the control of masters, should be used to minister to other 
passions than the love of gain, is certain. Hence, the 
reins are given to youthful licentiousness ; and early licen- 
tiousness is fruitful of crime in mature life. The frequency 
of these abominations in slave countries, shows that it is a 
necessary consequence of slavery. Some exceptions of 
domestic fidelity may be found; but these are few, by the 
confession of residents on the spot. Every man who resides 
on his plantation may have his harem, and has every induce- 
ment of custom and of pecuniary gain to tempt him to the 
common practice." 

(3.) Many masters have children and grandchildren born 
in slavery. Many, perhaps most of these, are well treated 
during the lifetime of their parents; but, at their death, 
they are mostly left in bondage. Some parents place their 
own children under the whip of the overseer. Others sell 
them into perpetual bondage. Some have for their slaves 
their own brothers and sisters. Such are the evils growing 
out of slavery, and incorporated into its very being. 

The quadroons of New Orleans and other southern loca- 
tions, are brought up by their mothers to be what they 
are — the mistresses of white gentlemen. Some of the boys 
are sent abroad, others are placed on farms, and others are 
sold into slavery. The girls are highly educated in exter- 
nals. Every young man early selects one. Some live with 
them through life; while others marry white wives, and 
then either disband their connection with the quadroons or 
continue it, as they see fit. 

Handsome mulattoes are sold at enormous prices in the 
southern market, for the accursed purposes to which the 
New Orleans quadroons are so shamefully subjected. 

Slaveholding proves a snare to masters and their sons, 
living in idleness, either by flattery or force to make undue 
approaches to the female slaves. The offspring, which is a 



152 DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 

mixed blood, become a source of jealousy to the lawful 
wife, and of shame and vexation to the legitimate children. 
The frequency of these abominable practices, in every slave 
neighborhood, shows that it is a necessary consequence of 
slavery. 

The sale of any children, -whether one's own children or 
the children of others, possesses the most shocking traits 
of depravity and consummate wickedness. All children 
born of female slaves, are devoted by the slave laws to 
perpetual slavery. On this account fathers sell their own 
children, or leave them in perpetual bondage. For a man 
to sell the children of another, is, in some respects, worse 
than to sell his own. Yet both have circumstances of 
horror peculiar to each. To sell the children of another 
appears more satanic, because in that case the seller has no 
moral right of property in the child that he violently wrests 
from the parents. In the latter case, the father has a cer- 
tain right of property to his own child, at least till it arrives 
at the age of twenty-one. Therefore, in the case of a man's 
selling his own children for slaves, he acts the more brutish 
part; but he who sells the children of another, acts the 
more diabolical part. 

The brutish custom of parents selling their own children 
and grandchildren; or, what is worse, leaving them to be 
inherited by their brothers and sisters, or their uncles and 
aunts, in the estimation of many has proved a barrier to 
emancipation. The general connection of white masters 
with their female slaves, produced a mulatto race whose 
numbers would soon be dangerous, if the affections of their 
white parents were permitted to render them free. The 
liberty of emancipating them was, therefore, abolished, while 
the liberty to sell them remained. Yet these planters, who 
sell their own offspring to fill their purses, and who have 
such offspring for the sake of filling their purses, raise the 
cry of amalgamation against the abolitionists, without just 



DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 153 

cause. But it is among the slaveholders that this abomina- 
ble mixture is constantly encouraged, and made a matter 
of gain, too. 

4. The wicked practice of slave-growing, if not a first- 
fruit of slavery, is at least a certain second crop, and now 
is to be ranked among its annual principal productions. 
We have previously given as much on this point as to pre- 
sent its existence and true character. Now we mention it 
in its proper place, as a legitimate part of American slavery, 
and connected with the annulment of marriage. We will 
here, on this point, barely quote the remarks of two writers, 
a gentleman and lady. These will speak to both sexes, in 
such terms as can not offend delicate ears, although they 
may appall the hearts of all except the guilty dealers in 
human stock. 

Dr. William E. Charming, in his book on slavery, p. 80, 
says : " We hear of some of the southern states enriching 
themselves by breeding slaves for sale. Of all the licensed 
occupations of society, this is the most detestable. What! 
grow men like cattle ! Rear human families, like herds of 
swine, and then scatter them to the four winds, for gain ! 
Among the imprecations uttered by man on man, is there 
one more fearful, more ominous, than the sighing mother's, 
bereft of her child by unfeeling cupidity ? If blood cry to 
God, surely that sigh will be heard in heaven." 

Miss Martineau, in her Views of Slavery and Emancipa- 
tion, New York, 1837, p. 9., employs the following lan- 
guage on this inhuman practice: ''There is no occasion to 
explain the management of the female slaves on estates 
where the object is to rear as many as possible, like stock, 
for the southern market; nor to point out the boundless 
licentiousness by the practice — a practice which wrung from 
the wife of a planter, in the bitterness of her heart, the 
declaration that a planter's wife was only * the chief slave 
of the harem.' Mr. Madison avowed that the licentiousness 



154 DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 

of the Virginia plantations stopped just short of destruc- 
tion ; and that it was understood that the female slaves 
were to become mothers at fifteen." 

5. A monstrous illegal amalgamation of the most revolt- 
ing character, is a consequence of the annulment of mar- 
riage among the slaves. More than half of the slaves, it is 
calculated, share the blood and color of the whites. And 
almost all these are illegitimate — born out of wedlock. In 
most parts of the slave states the licentiousness of the 
white males is very general, most of them living in forbid- 
den intimacy with the female slaves. Great solicitude is 
often manifested that the breeding wenches, as they call 
them, should be the mothers of mulatto children, as the 
nearer the young slaves approach to white the higher will 
their price be, especially if they are females. As much 
solicitude is felt on this point, as is felt respecting breeding 
animals ; namely, to increase the value of the marketable 
slave stock. Nay, some affirm that reAvards are sometimes 
given to white males, who will consent to be the fathers of 
the mulattoes. The colored women are compelled to sub- 
mit to this more than brutish treatment without murmuring, 
and are barbarously punished if they resent it. And yet 
southern slaveholders cry out against amalgamation by 
marriage, or against amalgamation in any form; while at 
the same time they are practically engaged in the most 
shameful, unnatural, and wicked amalgamation that ever 
debased human nature since the days of Sodom and Go- 
morrah. Of legal amalgamation they have the utmost 
horror; in illegal, compulsory amalgamation they seem to 
glory. 

Indeed, the mixture of color is rapidly increasing in the 
slave states by means of illicit connections, much more than 
by lawful marriage, if they were all free. For if they were 
free, they would improve by religious and moral instruction, 
which would prevent irregular practices. Not only so, if 



DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 155 

free, they would be delivered from the power of their mas- 
ters, who now compel the female slaves to become their 
prostitutes when the) r please. 

The facts in the case are plainly these. In the free states 
there is very little mixture of color. The colored people 
principally marry among- themselves. And in proportion 
as marriage obtains, these mixtures decrease. 

It is, therefore, a shameless hypocrisy for slaveholders 
and their defenders to cry out against amalgamation, when 
this is a thing that either wholly or principally concerns 
themselves. And more especially is it shameful, because 
all the colored people, both among the slaves and free peo- 
ple of color, are nearly akin to the slaveholders; they are 
their bone and their flesh. The greatest families in the 
south have the larger number of their own blood relations 
among the colored people. There are to be found their 
brothers and sisters, their children and grandchildren, their 
uncles and aunts, their cousins, back through many grades. 
Their fathers, grandfathers, great grandfathers, great great 
grandfathers, etc., had their relatives, too, among the colored 
people. Many of all the great southern families, then, are 
the blood relatives of the colored people. It is, therefore, 
a burning shame, to say nothing of the sin, for them to act 
toward their bone and their flesh as they continually do. 

6. This element of slavery, whereof we are now treating, 
degrades woman in the most shameful manner. A woman, 
under the control of slavery, her purity and honor in the 
hands of her master, exposed to the whip, liable to be sold 
at any time, can not be loved and honored as a woman 
should be. So it is in all slave countries. Woman is de- 
graded, just as in heathen countries. The sacred names of 
mother and wife, in their pure and dignified imports, will not 
apply to slave women. 

The public advertisements, under the sanction of law, 
to be met with in all southern papers, are among the mos< 



156 DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 

disgraceful, wicked, barbarous, and heathen customs that 

CD 

can be found on the face of the earth. Here are a few 
specimens of the expressions: 

"Twenty dollars reward. — Ran away from the subscriber, 
a negro woman and two children; the woman is tall and 
black; and a few days before she went off I burned her 
with a hot iron on the left side of her face ; I tried to make 
the letter M ; and she kept a cloth over her head and face, 
and a fly bonnet on her head, so as to cover the burn. Her 
children are both boys; the eldest is in his seventh year; 
he is a mulatto, and has blue eyes ; the youngest is black, 
and is in his fifth year." 

Another reads : " Mary has a small scar over her eye ; a 
good many teeth missing ; the letter A is branded on her 
forehead." 

These are mere specimens of the thousands of such ad- 
vertisements which are constantly issued. So the degrada- 
tion of woman has progressed. It began in particular 
instances, but it has progressed to become a system, and is 
now incorporated as part and parcel of American slavery. 
Take the following as an example, from the Brunswick 
(Georgia) Advocate : 

"Wanted to hire. — The undersigned wish to hire one 
thousand negroes to work on the Brunswick canal, of whom 
one-third may be women. Sixteen dollars per month will 
be paid for steady, prime men, and $13 for women. 

F. & A. Pratt, 
P. M. Nightingale. 
"Brunswick, Jan. 25, 1839." 

7. The Bible is in direct opposition to this feature of 
slavery. "Marriage is honorable in all ;" "For this cause 
shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to 
his wife ; and they shall be one flesh ;" " What God hath 
joined together let no man put asunder." A man may 
leave his father and mother, who have a better right to him 



DEPRIVATION* OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 157 

than any other can have, and cleave to his wife ; but he can 
not leave his master and cleave to his wife. The institution 
of marriage allows parents no right to hold their own chil- 
dren beyond mature age ; and, of course, they can have no 
right to sell them to others beyond that period. Hence, 
the Bible is against slavery. 

Moreover, all the denunciations in Scripture leveled 
against adultery, fornication, and the like, will apply to the 
violation of the marriage covenant authorized and protected 
by the laws of slavery, and very generally practiced in 
slave states. 

8. And here it is just to mention, that many slaveholders 
hold all these things in as great abhorrence as any others 
do. This proves the very thing for which we contend — the 
sinfulness of the slave system. Wherever there is an en- 
lighted judgment and a pure conscience, we find the most 
decided condemnation of these violations of the marriage 
covenant. And when some slaveholders say they condemn 
all these things, and they are wrong, we believe them ; 
and this only shows that conscience is on our side of the 
question, and against the whole system. And the crimes 
ao-ainst marriage, which we charge on slaverv, are not 
abuses of the system, but its legitimate operation. Its 
leading element, --the child follows the condition of the 
mother," because the mother is property, lies at the founda- 
tion of this sinful system of slavery. 

9. As examples of incests and the absence of parental 
natural affection, necessarily flowing from slavery, take the 
following : 

Some forty years ago, a gentleman from old Virginia 
settled near Lexington, Kentucky. He soon found his need 
of help to cultivate his farm, and proceeded to eastern 
Virginia to purchase slaves. On inquiring from a slave- 
breeder the price and qualities of his boys, he was directed 
to visit the negro quarters in reference to the age and quali- 

14 



158 DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS MARRIAGE. 

ties of two young men who seemed fitted for his purpose. 
On asking their mother who their father was, he received 
the following answer: "My master is the father of this 
one, and my master's son is the father of the other." The 
gentleman returned to the owner of the slaves, and informed 
him there was no need of a hell unless he would be sent 
there. The Kentucky gentleman determined from that mo- 
ment that he would never own a slave. Accordingly, he 
made no purchase, returned home, resolved he would never 
raise a family in a slave state, sold his possessions in Ken- 
tucky, removed to Ohio, and his descendants are now among 
the most influential, wealthy, and religious families in the 
state of Ohio. 

A quadroon and his wife, by the name of Harris, now 
reside in Springfield, Ohio, and their four children. The 
man paid $1,400 to his own father for his wife and three 
children, born in slavery. Thus the father exacted from 
his own son the sum of $1,400, for his own son's wife and 
his own three grandchildren. And all this according to 
the legitimate laws and the true spirit of the slave system. 



CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 159 



CHAPTER V. 

DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY IN- 
VOLVING INJUSTICE. 

Slavery deprives men of many civil rights, thus involv- 
ing great injustice, and preparing the way for the infliction 
of many and great injuries or wrongs. The most weighty 
of these are embraced in the following list: 

1. A slave can not be a witness against a white person, 
either in a civil or criminal case. 

2. A slave can not be party to a civil suit. 

3. A slave can not be a party before a judicial tribunal, 
in any species of action, against his master, no matter how 
atrocious may have been the injury which he has received 
from him. 

4. Submission is required of the slave, not to the will 
of the master only, but to the will of all other white 
persons. 

5. A third person may injure the slave; or slaves being 
objects of property, if injured by third persons, their 
owners may bring suit and recover damages for the injury. 

0. Slaves can make no contracts. 

V. Slaves can not redeem themselves, nor obtain a change 
of masters, though cruel treatment may have rendered such 
change necessary for their personal safety. 

8. The laws of the states prohibiting emancipation are 
cruel to the slave, interfere with the rights of conscience 
of those well-disposed masters who desire to give freedom 
to their slaves, and encourage and exculpate the wicked in 
their sins of oppression. 

9. Laws of the United States in regard to slavery aro 
unjust, cruel, inconsistent with the Constitution of the 
United States, at variance with the principles of liberty, 
and contrary to holy Scripture. 



160 CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 

In this chapter we will endeavor to show the great injus- 
tice done to the slaves by these enactments ; and that they 
prepare the way for the infliction of many injuries or 
wrongs; and that this is sinful in the sight of God, and 
condemned by holy Scripture. 

1. A slave can not be a witness against a white person, 
either in a civil or criminal case. 

"It may be laid down as a principle, that an African 
can not be a witness in a case where the parties are white 
persons. In many of the states legislative provision is made 
upon the subject. But the rule does not extend to cases 
where the parties are negroes or slaves. A slave may be 
a witness against a slave, and even against a free person 
of color in some cases. The principle of exclusion is 
grounded on the degraded state of the slave, and the 
interest which he may have to conceal or deny the truth. 
This rule prevails in all countries where slavery is tolerated. 
It may be stated as a principle, that in all countries where 
slavery exists, and where the rules of the civil law have 
been adopted — and they have been in the Spanish, Portu- 
guese, and British West Indies, and in the several states of 
the United States, where it is permitted — a slave can not be 
a witness for or against a white person in a civil or criminal 
case. This principle has been adopted in all the states, 
even where no enactments are to be found declaring them 
incompetent witnesses. It may be termed the common 
Jaw or custom, on account of the universality of its opera- 
tion." (Wheeler, pp. 193-197; Stroud, p. 56.) 

(1.) The law excluding the testimony of slaves extends 
also to all colored persons, whatever may be the shade of 
their complexion, wmether bond or free. In a few of the 
slaveholding states the rule derives its authority from cus- 
tom; in others, the legislatures have sanctioned it by express 
enactment. In Virginia the act reads, "Any negro or 
mulatto, bond or free, shall be a good witness in pleas of 



CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 161 

the commonwealth for or against negroes or mulattoes, 
bond or free, or in civil pleas where free negroes or mu- 
lattoes shall alone be parties ; and in no other cases what- 
ever." A similar law exists in Missouri, Mississippi, Ken- 
tucky, Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, and Tennessee. 
And in those states where there are no laws, custom has 
all the authority of law. 

(2.) The effects of this disability on the colored people 
are most injurious. 

While this exclusion of the evidence of colored persons 
prevails, it is of little use to enact laws against kidnapping. 
The colored person, though free, can not be a witness 
against the man who steals him or his children. But 
change the law, and kidnapping would be of easy detec- 
tion. Thousands of free colored persons have been en- 
slaved by the action of this law or custom, against the 
testimony of colored persons. 

This law places the slave, who, in some states, is seldom 
within the view of more than one white person at a time, 
entirely at the mercy of this individual. And this white 
individual may, with impunity, if no other white person be 
present, torture, maim, or murder the slave in the midst of 
any number of mulattoes. This is the cause of the greatest 
evils of slavery. The master or his overseer, if disposed 
to commit illegal violence on the slave, may easily remove 
him or her to some place where there is no competent 
witness. 

(3.) Almost all protecting laws are a nullity, in conse- 
quence of rejecting the testimony of slaves or colored 
persons. The most impartial slaveholders acknowledge this. 
Indeed, it can readily be collected from their very laws. 

Mr. Dewry Atley, Chief Justice of the island of St. Vin- 
cent, gives the following answer to Parliamentary inquiries 
proposed to him, in 1791 : "The only instances in which 
their [slaves] persons appear to be protected by the letter 

14* 



]62 CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 

of the law are in cases of murder, dismemberment, and 
mutilation ; and in these cases, as the evidence of slaves is 
never admitted against a white man, the difficulty of estab- 
lishing the facts is so great that white men are, in a manner, 
put beyond the reach of the law." (See Stroud, p. 68.) 

Sir William Young, Governor of Tobago, an advocate 
for slavery, in 1811, expresses himself in this manner: "I 
think the slaves have no protection by law. In this, and I 
doubt not in every other island, there are laws for the pro- 
tection of slaves, and good ones ; but circumstances in the 
administration of whatever law render it a dead letter. 
When the intervention of the law is most required, it will 
have the least effect; as in cases where a vindictive and 
cruel master has the disposition to commit the most atro- 
cious cruelties, even to murder his slave, no free person 
being present to witness the act. Humane laws for the 
protection of slaves are all rendered nugatory by the con- 
ditions of evidence required in their administration." 

Mr. Stevens, in his history of West India slavery, has 
collected testimonv, showing that all laws made for the 
protection of slaves are inefficient, in consequence of the 
rejection of the testimony of slaves. 

The negro act of South Carolina contains the following 
preamble to one of its sections: " Whereas, by reason of 
the extent and distance of plantations in this province, the 
inhabitants are far removed from each other, and many 
cruelties may be committed on slaves, because no white 
person may be present to give evidence of the same." 
(Stroud, p. G8.) 

The Supreme Court of Louisiana, in their decision, in 
the case of Crawford vs. Cherry, where the defendant was 
sued for the value of a slave whom he had shot and killed, 
(Martin's La. Reports, p. 142; see Slavery As It Is, p. 
149,) say: " The act charged here is one rarely committed 
in the presence of witnesses," (whites.) So in the case of 






CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 163 

the state against Mann, (Devereux's N. C. Reports, p. 263,) 
in which the defendant was charged with shootino- a slave 
girl belonging to the plaintiff, the Supreme Court of North 
Carolina, in their decision, speaking of the provocations of 
the master by the slave, and the consequent wrath of the 
master prompting him to bloody vengeance, add, "A ven- 
geance generally practiced with impunity by reason of its 
privacy." 

(4.) The remedy proposed by southern laws does not 
accomplish any effectual relief to the slave. The law of 
South Carolina — the preamble of which we have given — 
declares : " Be it enacted, that if any slave shall suffer in 
life, limb, or member, or shall be maimed, beaten, or abused, 
contrary to the directions and true intent and meaning of 
this act, when no white person shall be present, or, being 
present, shall neglect or refuse to give evidence, or be ex- 
amined upon oath concerning the same, in every such case 
the owner or other person who shall have the care and gov- 
ernment of such slave, and in whose possession or power 
such slave shall be, shall be deemed, taken, reported, and 
adjudged to be guilty of such offense, and shall be proceeded 
against accordingly, without further proof, unless such owner 
or other person as aforesaid, can make the contrary appear 
by good and sufficient evidence, or shall by his own oath 
clear and exculpate himself; which oath every court, where 
such offense shall be tried, is hereby empowered to admin- 
ister and to acquit the offender, if clear proof of the offense 
be not made by two witnesses at least." (Stroud, p. ^4.) 
Louisiana imitates the law of South Carolina. This law 
seems to be intended, not for the protection of the slave, but 
for the special benefit of a cruel master; for the offender 
must be acquitted upon his own oath, unless two witnesses 
can be found against him — an event not expected by the 
law, as the preamble and the terms in the act show. 

Hence, all the provisions of the codes which profess to 



164 CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 

protect slaves, are either inefficient or hypocritical. The 
laws profess to grant protection to the slaves, while at the 
same time this law, that excludes their testimony, strips 
them of the only means by which they can make that pro- 
tection available. Injuries must be legally proved before 
they can be legally redressed. Therefore, to deprive men 
of the power of proving their injuries, is itself the greatest 
injury. This law alone makes all protecting laws nugatory. 
How can a slave prove outrages perpetrated on him by his 
master or overseer, when his own testimony and that of all 
his fellow-slaves is ruled out of court? And the more so, 
as the slave is in the poiver of those who injure him, and 
when the only care necessary on their part is, to see that no 
white witness is looking on. Ordinarily but one white man, 
the overseer, is with the slaves while they are at labor. 
Hence it is difficult to detect, by white witnesses, the cruel- 
ties of the whites on their slaves. The law of South 
Carolina is a specimen. It supposes only one white man 
on the plantation. And even then it requires two white 
witnesses to testify to the third white man, when it is very 
unusual for more than the overseer alone to be present. 
This is a fair specimen of the injustice of slavery. 

(5.) It may not now be improper to see upon what reason 
the exclusion of colored persons as competent witnesses is 
founded. 

It is stated that " the admission of the testimony of 
slaves would be dangerous to the lives and fortunes of the 
whites." This charge would imply that there is a total 
absence of veracity among the slaves, which is absurd. 
And its absurdity is acknowledged, by the fact, that slaves 
are competent witnesses, not only against each other, but 
against free persons of color, without any restriction. If 
the objection is restrained to the testimony of the slave 
against his master, it presumes the predominance of the 
utmost depravity of heart in the slave. To concede this is 



CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 165 

to impute criminal negligence to the master; for havin<>- 
absolute dominion over the slave, he has, after all, neglected 
his moral and religious instruction and training. 

It may be said, the "hope of gain" would induce the 
slave to testify falsely. This objection, if valid, degrades 
the master below the level of the slave, in cases in which 
the master's interests are concerned. 

The fear of punishment, in general, is a serious difficulty, 
and perhaps can not be well allowed, in compassion to the 
slave, while slavery exists. For the master may inflict 
severe punishment on the slave, if the latter, though testify- 
ing the truth, testifies against his master; and probably, 
while slavery continues, it would be mercy to relieve him 
from telling the truth against his owner and oppressor. 
But this shows the evil nature of slavery, which will not 
admit the truth to be uttered concerning its doings. 

To all or most of the objections against the slaves' testi- 
mony, trial by jury is an ample refutation. There are cases 
among Avhites in which the testimony of certain persons is 
rejected ; but then this does not amount to any such exclu- 
sion as is applied to slaves. And trial by jury will certainly 
relieve the difficulty in the case of free colored persons, as 
well as in the case of white persons of equal credibility. 
In the various courts great vigilance is necessary, in refer- 
ence to white persons, in detecting the falsities of testimony. 
The same care would meet the case of free colored persons 
effectually, and most of those in which slaves are concerned. 

And in the cases in which truth would suffer by the tes- 
timony of slaves, the system of slavery is to bear the entire 
blame of this, as it throws in its terrors and cruelties to 
prevent the utterance of truth, which would condemn the 
guilty. 

(6.) The inability of slaves and free colored persons to 
bear testimony in the United States is without parallel in 
the history of the world. 



1GG CIVIL DISABILITIES OK SLAVERY. 

No such incompetency was sanctioned by the Jewish law- 
giver. The law of Moses mentions the numher-oi witnesses 
required to establish the truth, but is silent as to any incom- 
petency on the part of slaves. (Pout, xvii, 6, and xix, 15.) 
The judges were empowered to decide upon the credibility 
of witnesses; to proceed against those who testified falsely 
in a summary way ; and to inflict punishment on them when 
they testified falsely. 

The villenatre of England furnished no authority for the 
universal application of this rule. Even the civil law, which 
generally excluded slave testimony, makes so many import- 
ant exceptions as to admit such testimony on special occa- 
sions. This rule of evidence, to the extent to which it 
obtains in the United Suites, can not challenge for its support 
the authority of any country, either ancient or modern, 
For it is not the evidence of slaves only that is rejected, 
but also of all free colored persons. 

(V.) There is a peculiar viciousness in the system of 
slavery, in rejecting- the testimony of slaves and colored 
persons. The admission of false witnesses is, in Scripture, 
denounced as one of the most horrible crimes. And Satan 
himself, the father of lies, is the father of the liar. Now, 
to reject true testimony is the same crime, in effect, as the 
admission of false testimony. So slavery, in rejecting the 
true, admits the false. Although murder, rapes, cruelties, 
and whippings of all kinds, are constantly perpetrated on 
the persons of slaves, all must be borne without redress, 
because the only witnesses are pronounced incompetent. 
And can such a system, which comprises this wicked rule, 
be itself other than sinful? Certainly, according to the 
Bible, such crimes are pronounced as heinous sins. 

2. "A slave can not be a party to a civil suit." (Stroud, 
p. TO.) "A slave can not stand in judgment for any other 
purpose than to assert his freedom. He is not even allowed 
to contest the title of the person holding or claiming him as 






OXTCL DISABILXl EM OF SLAVERY. 107 

-i slave." (Berard 0*. Berard, et at., February term, i 
i) La. Reporti, L66; see Wheeler, [91.) 

(J.) As the slave can not acquire or retain property, a* 
his own, contrary to the will of Lis master, it results that 
he can not be a party to a civil suit; for then- is no p< 
of civil suit which does not, in some way, affect property. 
Wheeler presents this point as follows : "Slaves are them 
selves considered as property, and can neither take, poi 

nor retain any, except lot the u <■ of their masters. A slave 

can not be a party to a civil suit, except in the single ca e 
where the negro is held as a Blave, and he claims to be free. 
It would be an idle form and ceremony to make a slave a 
party to a suit, by the instrumentality of which he could 
recover nothing; or if a recovery could be had, the instant 
it was recovered would belong to the master. The slave 
can possess nothing; he can hold nothing. He is, therefore, 
not a competent party to a suit. And the same rule pre- 
vails wherever slavery is tolerated, whether there be legisla- 
tive enactments upon the subject or not. In all cases where 

the Blave alleges he is free, of course he is a party. He 

may have a habeas COTpUS, and if there may be a false 
return, may sue. upon it. Or he may bring trespass for 
assault and battery, and false imprisonment, to which 
action, the defendant, to justify himself, must plead the 
negro is his slave. In many of the states, he may proceed 
by petition for freedom." (Wheeler's Law of Slavery, 
p. 107.) 

(2.) There is, however, an exception to this rule, given by 
the laws of all the slaveholding states to persons held as 
slaves, but claiminy to be free, to prosecute their claims to 
freedom before some judicial tribunal. The law of South 
Carolina — which is in substance adopted by other states — 
allows the person claimed, or his attorney, to sue for free 

dom; and if the suit be gained, the person claiming the 

slave is cast in the cost. JJut if the unfortunate man claimed 



168 CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 

as a slave can not make good his cause, the following is the 
law: "But in case judgment shall be given for the defend- 
ant, the said court is hereby fully empowered to inflict such 
corporeal punishment, not extending to life or limb, on the 
word of the plaintiff, as they in their discretion shall think 
fit. Provided, that in any action or suit to be brought in 
pursuance of the direction of this act, the burden of the 
proof shall lay on the plaintiff; and it shall be always pre- 
sumed that every negro, Indian, mulatto, and mestizo, is a 
slave, unless the contrary be made to appear." (See 
Stroud, p. 11.) 

(3.) Every one must see the injustice and cruelty of this 
law. " The negro claims to be free, and yet he can bring 
no suit to investigate his master's title to restrain him of his 
liberty, unless some one can be found merciful enough to 
become his guardian, subject in any event to the expense 
and trouble of conducting his cause, and in case of a failure, 
to the cost of suit. His judges and jurors will, in all proba- 
bility, be slaveholders, and interested, therefore, in some 
measure, in the question which they are to try. The whole 
community in which he lives may, so few are the exceptions, 
be said to be hostile to his success. Being a negro, by the 
words of the act, the burden of 'proof rests upon him, and 
lie is presumed to be a slave till he make the contrary 
appear. This is to be effected through the instrumentality 
of white witnesses, as has just been shown, exclusive of the 
testimony of those who are not white, even though they 
may be free, and of the fairest character. And, lastly, not- 
withstanding all these obstacles to the ascertaining of the 
truth of his allegations, the terror is superadded, should he 
not succeed in convincing the judge of his right to freedom, 
of an infliction of corporeal punishment to any extent short 
of capital execution, or tlte deprivation of « limb ! And in 
Georgia, should death happen by accident in giving this 
legal correction, according to the terms of the constitution 



CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 1G9 

already quoted, it will be no crime ! Such legislation forci- 
bly reminds us of the feast of Dionysius, which was supreme 
beneficence, compared with the terms of mercy contained in 
this act." (Stroud, pp. 77-79.) 

(4.) In South Carolina, by an act of 1802, the white man 
who carries on the suit in behalf of the colored man, "shall 
be liable to double costs of suit, if his action shall be ad- 
judged groundless ; and shall be liable to pay to the bona 
fide owner of such slave, all such damages as shall be 
assessed by a jury and adjudged by any court of common 
pleas." In Maryland, the attorney, in a trial for freedom, 
must pay all costs, if unsuccessful, unless the court shall be 
of opinion that there was probable cause for supposing the 
petitioner had a right to freedom. And on such a trial the 
master is allowed twelve peremptory challenges as to the 
jury. In Virginia, if the claimant shall fail in his suit a fine 
of $100 is imposed. In Missouri a poor person may, with- 
out cost, ask for a trial ; yet it depends on the court, or a 
single judge, whether the petitioner shall be heard by a 
jury at all. In Alabama the Legislature has adopted the 
objectionable parts of the Missouri law, while the beneficial 
provisions have been omitted. (See Stroud, p. 78, note.) 

Speech of a Slave at his Trial. — The following striking 
anecdote is found in the journal of a traveler. In relating 
it, we do not justify the slave. We leave that to those who 
are ready to fight for their own liberty, while they are 
willing to withhold liberty from others. 

"In the afternoon I passed by a field in which several 
poor slaves had been executed, on the charge of having an 
intention to rise against their masters. A lawyer who was 
present at their trials at Richmond, informed me, that one 
of them being asked what he had to say to the court, in his 
defense, replied in a manly tone of voice : ' I have nothing 
more to offer than what General Washington would have 
had to offer, had he been taken by the British, and put to 



170 CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 

trial by them. I have adventured my life in endeavoring 
to obtain the liberty of my countrymen, and am a willing 
sacrifice in their cause ; and I beg, as a favor, that I may be 
immediately led to execution. I know that you have pre- 
determined to shed my blood : why then all this mockery 
of a trial V " (Sutcliff 's Travels.) 

The unjust sentiment which presumes every negro to be 
a slave, obtains in all the slaveholding states, unless perhaps 
one. In Virginia there is no statute, yet there are judicial 
decisions which amount to the same. Chancellor Wythe 
decided, "that whenever one person claims to hold another 
in slavery, the onus probandi [burden of proof] lies on the 
claimant." The supreme court of appeals reversed this de- 
cision, and determined that his reasoning was applicable 
only to "white persons and native American Indians," but 
entirely inapplicable to "native Africans and their descend- 
ants." (Stroud, pp. 19, 80.) In North Carolina the doctrine 
is confined to the full-blooded African. 

(5.) This process of arresting real or suspected runaways 
is a fruitful source of man- stealing. The white man who 
can exhibit a colored man in his custody, within the limits 
of a slaveholding state, is exempted from the necessity of 
making any proof how he obtained him, or by what authority 
he claims him as a slave. The colored man, by the laws 
of the land, is presumed to be a slave. Hence, the man- 
stealer is protected in his robbery by the laws which uphold 
slavery. 

By the laws of several slave states manumitted and 
other free persons of color may be arrested while in the 
pursuit of lawful business. If documentary evidence be not 
produced immediately proving them free, they are thrown 
into prison, and advertised as runaways. And as there is 
no owner to appear in these cases, the jailer, after a limited 
time, is directed to sell them at public auction, as unclaimed 
fugitive slaves, in order to pay for their unjust detention in 



CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. l7l 

prison. Thus freemen and their posterity are doomed to 
perpetual slavery. 

(6.) Now, if these acts of injustice are not sinful, then 
there is no sin in the world. Man-stealing can not be sinful, 
if slavery is right. And to rob a man of his inalienable 
rights can not be sinful, if slavery be not a system founded 
and continued by sin. 

3. "A slave can not be a party before a judicial tribunal 
in any species of action, against his master, no matter how 
atrocious may have been the injury which he has received 
from him." (Stroud, p. 57.) 

4. "Submission is required of the slave, not to the will 
of his master only, but to the will of all other white per- 
sons." (Stroud, p. 97.) 

An act of Georgia declares, "If any slave shall presume 
to strike any white person, such slave, upon trial and con- 
viction before the justice or justices, according to the direc- 
tions of this act, shall, for the first offense, suffer such 
punishment as the said justice or justices shall, in his or 
their discretion, think fit, not extending to life or limb ; and 
for the second offense suffer death." (Stroud, p. 97.) The 
law of South Carolina is the same, except that death is not 
made the penalty of the second but of the third offense. 
But, in both states, when the slave strikes the white per- 
son, by the command or in defense of the master, the 
master shall be answerable, as if the act was committed by 
himself. 

In Maryland, for such an offense, the offender's ears may 
be cut off, though he be a free black. (Stroud, p. 97.) 

In Kentucky, the slave or free colored person, for every 
such offense "shall receive thirty lashes on his or her bare 
back, well laid on, by order of such justice." In Virginia 
there was a similar law, to which, in 1792, it was added, 
" Except in those cases where it shall appear to such justice 
that such negro or mulatto was wantonly assaulted, and 



172 CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 

lifted his or her hand in his or her defense." (Stroud, 
p. 98.) 

Associated with the foregoing, is the following act of 
Louisiana respecting colored persons. "Free people of 
color ought never to insult or strike white people, nor pre- 
sume to conceive themselves equal to the whites; but, on 
the contrary, they ought to yield to them on every occasion, 
and never speak or answer them but with respect, under 
the penalty of imprisonment, according to the nature of 
the offense." (Stroud, p. 98.) 

By the laws of Maryland and South Carolina, if the 
slave resist being examined or seized by any white person, 
the slave may be lawfully killed. (Stroud, p. 99.) 

Slavery requires unbounded submission from the slave to 
his master. The life of the slave is in the power of the 
master ; and yet the slave must not resist, even to save his 
life. Not only so, but the slave is under the like submis- 
sion to every white person, with little reference to character 
or motives. These laws furnish either a pretext or an 
inducement to ignoble minds to tyrannize oyer and oppress 
the defenseless slave, who is compelled to endure every 
personal injury which any white person may inflict. 

5. A third person may injure the slave. Slaves being 
property, if injured by third persons, their owners may 
bring suit and recover damages for the injury. This is a 
maxim of the common law, with respect to property in gen- 
eral, and it therefore applies to slaves in general, wherever 
they exist. The law does not operate as a shield to the 
slave against corporeal injury, unless the violence used dete- 
riorates the value of the slave. The purpose of the law is 
not the protection of the slave, but of the master's right of 
property. And though this is proclaimed to be a sufficient 
protection to the slave, it would be more just to say, that it is 
the only protection granted to him. The chastity of a female 
slave may be violated, the person of the slave assaulted; 



CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 1*73 

but if the pecuniary value of the slave be not injured, then 
all is well enough. 

6. Slaves can make no contracts. A slave can not con- 
tract matrimony ; the association among them, sometimes 
called marriage, is, as before observed, properly called con- 
tubernium, or concubinage, to which no sanctity or civil 
rights are attached. The slave can not buy, or sell, or trade. 
He can not hire himself. The slave can not inherit any 
property by descent or purchase. It is true, benevolent 
masters often permit them to make gains in various ways ; 
but this is not done with the permission, much less the 
authority of law, but is rather a violation of it. Besides, 
these are only small perquisites, which never amount to any 
thing like independence, or the acquisition of wealth or per- 
manent property. (Stroud, pp. 45-50 and 61, 62.) 

7. Slaves can not redeem themselves, nor obtain a change 
of masters, though cruel treatment may have rendered such 
change necessary to their personal safety. 

This proposition holds good as to the right of redemption 
in all the slaveholding states. And it is equally true in 
regard to the change of masters, except in Louisiana. In 
this state a slave may demand a change of masters for cruel 
treatment, provided the master can be convicted of this 
crime, or the judge will deem it proper to allow it; two 
conditions that can rarely be found to exist. The words of 
the act are : " When the master shall be convicted of cruel 
treatment of his slave, and the judge shall deem it proper 
to pronounce, besides the penalty established for such cases, 
that the slave shall be sold at public auction, in order to 
place him out of the reach of the power which his master 
has abused." 

8. The laws preventing emancipation in general, and re- 
straining it in cases in which it is allowed, are at variance 
with the principles of justice. 

(1.) The master's benevolence to his slave can not be 

15* 



174 CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 

exercised by emancipation, without the consent of his cred- 
itors. This is a principle pervading every code in the slave- 
holding states. 

In Virginia and Mississippi an emancipated slave may be 
taken in execution, to satisfy any debt contracted by the 
person emancipating him previous to such emancipation. 
In Kentucky the act contains a saving of the right of cred- 
itors. The new civil code of Louisiana amounts to the 
same. (Stroud, p. 146.) 

In addition to the obstacle of emancipation, which is 
created by the saving clause in favor of creditors, a similar 
one exists in reference to the widows of deceased slave- 
holders. If the widow's thirds are not met in the real 
estate, then the slaves, though manumitted by the husband, 
are held as liable, and may be sold to make up the third. 
(Stroud, p. 146.) 

(2.) The most formidable difficulties to emancipation arise 
from the mode by which it may be effected. In some states 
it is only by special legislative acts that a valid emancipa- 
tion can be effected. In other states there are general acts 
under which emancipation can be effected. 

In South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, 
emancipation can take place only by a special act in each 
case. The slaveholder can not, in these states, get rid of 
his slaves, unless he sell them as chattels, or can obtain 
the special act of the legislature authorizing emancipation, 
a thing very rarely granted. Or even if he permits the 
slave to work for himself, he is fined. 

In Georgia, by the act of 1801, an attempt to set a negro 
free, except by legislative act, incurs a fine of $200 for 
every such offense ; and " the slaves so manumitted and set 
free shall be still, to all intents and purposes, as much in a 
state of slavery as before they were manumitted." And 
by the act of 1818 it was determined that any master, 
who, by will and testament, deed, or otherwise, whether by 



CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 175 

way of trust or otherwise, would attempt to confer freedom 
on the slave, or secure to the slave the right of working for 
himself, the master may be fined in a sum not exceeding 
$1,000, and such slave may be sold at public outcry. 
(Stroud, pp. 147, 148.) 

In Mississippi all the obstacles found in all the states, 
seemed to be combined and set in array against freedom, as 
if it was the greatest mischief in the world. Thus, the 
emancipation must be by an instrument in writing, a last 
will or deed, etc., under seal, attested by at least two credi- 
ble witnesses, or acknowledged in the court of the county 
or corporation where the emancipator resides ; proof satis- 
factory to the General Assembly must be adduced that the 
slave has done some meritorious act for the benefit of his 
master, or rendered some distinguished service to the state ; 
all which circumstances are but prerequisites, and one of 
no efficacy till a special act of Assembly sanctions the 
emancipation; to which may be added, a saving of the 
rights of creditors, and the protection of the widow's thirds. 
(Stroud, p. 149.) 

(3.) In some states emancipation may be effected under 
general acts of the legislature, as in North Carolina, Ten- 
nessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Virginia. 

The law of North Carolina, of 1111, enacts, "That no 
negro or mulatto slave shall hereafter be set free, except for 
meritorious services, to be adjudged of and allowed by the 
county court, and license first had and obtained thereupon." 
And if a slave should be set free in any other manner, the 
slave may then be sold to the highest bidder by the sheriff". 
(Stroud, p. 148.) 

The law of Tennessee is the same with that of North 
Carolina, except an additional proviso, enacted in 1801, 
which required the emancipation to be "consistent with 
the interest and policy of the state." (Stroud, p. 149.) 

Kentucky, in 1798, enacted the following law, which is 



176 CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 

still in force: "It shall be lawful for any person, by his 
or her last will and testament, or by any other instrument 
in writing, under his or her hand and seal, attested and 
proved in the county court by two witnesses, or acknowl- 
edged by the party in the court of the county where he or 
she resides, to emancipate or set free his or her slave or 
slaves, who shall thereupon be entirely and fully discharged 
from the performance of any contract entered into during 
their servitude, and enjoy their full freedom, as if they had 
been born free. And the said court shall have full power 
to demand bond and sufficient security of the emancipator, 
his or her executors, etc., for the maintenance of any slave 
or slaves that may be aged or infirm, either of body or 
mind, to prevent him, her, or them becoming chargeable to 
the county ; and every slave so emancipated shall have a 
certificate of his freedom from the clerk of such court on 
parchment, with the county seal affixed thereto, etc., saving, 
however, the rights of creditors." 

The law of Missouri is substantially the same with the 
law of Kentucky. (Stroud, pp. 149, 150.) In these states 
there is certainly no serious restraint on those who are dis- 
posed to set their slaves at liberty. 

In Virginia the law is similar to the laws of Kentucky 
and Missouri, with the following inhuman proviso : " If any 
emancipated slave — infants excepted — shall remain within 
the state more than twelve months after his or her rig-lit to 
freedom shall have accrued, he or she shall forfeit all such 
right, and may be apprehended and sold by the overseers 
of the poor, etc., for the benefit of the literary fund." 
(Stroud, p. 18.) 

Emancipation in Maryland may be effected by deed or 
will, duly attested. The decision of Maryland is in con- 
formity with the law of villenage, as well as the civil law. 
But such an emancipation in North or South Carolina is 
utterly void. 



CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 1*77 

In Louisiana, except "a slave who has saved the life of 
his master, his master's wife, or one of his children," none 
can be set at liberty under the age of thirty years. Per- 
sons over this age may be emancipated by a last will, 
hemmed in by considerable obstructions. If it be by deed, 
it must be after being forty days publicly advertised, and 
no opposition being made to it — a condition that will rarely 
be favorable to emancipation among a community of slave- 
holders. Neverthless, Louisiana has a mildness in this mat- 
ter beyond most other of the far southern states, although 
her code, as a whole, is nearly a perfect barrier against 
emancipation." (Stroud, p. 153, 154.) 

Wheeler, in a note on his chapter on emancipation, says : 
" It will be seen by this chapter, that the owner of slaves 
may emancipate them by deed, will, or by contract exe- 
cuted. But to this benevolence of the owner there are, in 
the most of the states, restraints upon the exercise of this 
power by the owner. Slaves are recognized, wherever the 
system is tolerated, as property, and are subject to all the 
rules in the acquisition, possession, and transmission of 
property. It would seem, therefore, upon a first view of 
the case, that the owner should do with his property what- 
ever he pleased, and should have the privilege of renouncing 
his right to it whenever he pleased, and without being qual- 
ified by any public laws or regulations upon the subject. 
Such, however, is not the fact; restraints upon this right 
exist in nearly all the states. "When it is considered that 
slaves are a peculiar species of property, it will not excite 
surprise that laws are necessary for their regulation, and 
to protect society from even the benevolence of slave- 
owners, in throwing among the community a great number 
of stupid, ignorant, and vicious persons, to disturb its peace 
and to endanger its permanency." (Wheeler, pp. 386-388.) 

(4.) The moral evils chargeable on the laws which pre- 
vent, discourage, or embarrass emancipation are numerous 



178 CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 

and aggravating, and can not be reconciled with common 
justice or the Bible. 

First. The impediments to emancipation interfere with 
the rights of property, according to the southern definition 
of property. As the right of property in the slave belongs 
to the master, it is plain that the master ought, at his 
pleasure, relinquish his right to the slave whenever he 
pleases ,* and to restrain this right of disposing of property 
is as inconsistent as to prevent from acquiring it. The 
laws, therefore, which prohibit or restrain emancipation 
are unconstitutional in the states which enact and enforce 
them. 

Second. This also interferes with the rights of conscience. 
By these laws the slave-owner must continue a slave-owner, 
however his conscience may accuse him of wrong for being 
an owner of his fellow-beings. The Bible enjoins on the 
conscience to avoid oppression and wrong of every kind ; 
and yet the system of slavery, in most states, prevents men 
from acting according to the dictates of conscience. 

Third. Hence, those laws which prohibit or restrain 
emancipation encourage and maintain sinful oppression of 
men; for the action of state legislatures and grateful mas- 
ters, who have emancipated slaves for meritorious services, 
prove that holding innocent men in slavery is sinful. Every 
such emancipation is an attestation that slavery is wrong, 
and liberty is a good. When slaves are freed for mer- 
itorious services, liberty, by this act, is declared to be the 
highest gift which can be bestowed on the slaves. He, 
therefore, who holds slaves, holds them in deprivation of 
what slave legislatures have declared a blessing to them. 
Slaveholders, therefore, by granting freedom as a reward, 
admit that slavery punishes the innocent, and is therefore 
sinful. 

Fourth. The consequence of this embargo laid on the 
consciences of citizens has been, that multitudes of the best 



CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 17D 

citizens of the slaveholding states have been induced to 
abandon their native states, and settle in free states, in 
order to be relieved from this antichristian necessity, laid 
on them by unjust laws. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, 
especially the southern portions of these states, have been 
replenished with large numbers of refugees from the unjust 
laws of slavery — especially the law which prohibits, em- 
barrasses, or restrains emancipation. 

Nor are the southern states recompensed by the many 
emigrants from the free states, should their number ever 
be equal. These northern men, who, though trained in 
the principles of freedom, throw away their conscientious 
scruples, are men of the worst character; hence, being 
without conscientious control, they become the worst mas- 
ters. This is the history of the world. In every country 
those who were raised non-slaveholders are the worst mas- 
ters; for the plain reason, that, in becoming masters, they 
knowingly and deliberately act contrary to their convictions 
of right ; and doing it in this case, they will do it in others. 
The love of gain made them slaveholders ; the love of more 
gain makes them the worst class of slaveholders. He that 
is a slaveholder by education, or by inheritance, is much 
more likely to be humane than he who is a slaveholder for 
the sake of gain, as most of the northern men are who are 
slaveholders. The south, then, lose their good men, and 
receive in their place a bad class of men, very little under 
the control of conscience. 

Fifth. We shall notice the plea of slaveholders, taken 
from their mouth by Mr. Wheeler, that restraining laws are 
necessary "to protect society from even the benevolence of 
slave-owners, in throwing into the community a great num- 
ber of stupid, ignorant, and vicious persons, to disturb its 
peace, and to endanger its permanency. " The slave system 
can not allow of the exercise of benevolence. It began in 
malevolence, or a want of good-will to man, cherished by 



180 CIVIL DISABILITIES OF SLAVERY. 

ambition and lust; and the whole system is at war, in sys- 
tematic organization, against both private and public be- 
nevolence. Resides, the members which it furnishes for 
society, according to the excuse of the slaveholders, are 
"stupid, ignorant, and vicious persons," who are just pre- 
pared to "disturb the peace and permanency of the com- 
munity." Nothing good in itself, or tending to good, will 
ever restrain the full exercise of benevolence; nor will it 
make men stupid, ignorant, vicious, nor disturb the peace 
of society. And as slavery, in its restraints on emancipa- 
tion, seems compelled to pursue such evil measures, the 
whole system should be abandoned by a general emancipa- 
tion, in the best, the safest, and shortest way possible to 
accomplish the object. 

The long list of wrongs inflicted by slavery, under the 
items comprised in this single chapter, stamps it with a 
degree of sinfulness which, of itself, is sufficient to condemn 
it in the sight of all good men. And, indeed, the wisest 
and best of men have deliberately decided, that the wrongs 
included under this list alone attach to slavery the character 
of the highest felony, which, according to the principles of 
justice, would condemn the felons as guilty of high crimi- 
nal character, and worthy of suitable punishment. 



PART III. 

INJURIES INFLICTED BY AMERICAN SLAVERY. 



CHAPTER I. 

EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 

In the preceding chapters, except the first, we took a 
survey of the rights of which slavery deprives men. We 
will now consider its wrongs; for slavery is a system of in- 
juries which inflicts wrongs on innocent persons. 

The primary objects of just laws are the establishment 
of rights and the prohibition of wrongs. Injuries or wrongs, 
for the most part, convey to us an idea merely negative, or 
being nothing else than a privation of right. The contem- 
plation of what is just, or right, is necessarily prior to what 
may be termed injuria, injuries or wrongs; and the definition 
of fas, right, precedes that of nefas, wrong. Wrongs, accord- 
ing to Blackstone, book hi, 2, are divisible into two sorts or 
species — private wrongs and public ivrongs. Private wrongs 
are an infringement or privation of the private or civil rights 
belonging to individuals, considered as individuals, and are 
mostly termed civil injuries. Public wrongs are a breach 
and violation of public rights and duties, which affect the 
whole community, and are distinguished by the harsher 
names of crimes and misdemeanors. 

Wrongs, or injuries, whether private or public — whether 
inflicted by individuals or communities — by laws or indi- 
vidual interference — are contrary to the word of God, and 
expressly forbidden in holy Scripture in the plainest manner, 
and under the most awful sanctions. Nothing is plainer 
than the following: "Thou shalt not kill;" "Thou shalt 
not steal;" "Though shalt not bear false witness;" "Thou 
shalt not covet." Oppression, injury, and wrong, are as 
expressly forbidden as any thing else in Scripture. And the 
wrongs inflicted on slaves by the slave laws, by the judicial 
decisions supporting and explaining these laws, by the 
general practice under the laws, and the no less powerful 

183 



184 EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 

customs growing out of the decisions and enactments, are 
clearly forbidden in the word of God, and point out the 
sinfulness of slavery as clearly as that theft, murder, perjury, 
and covetousness, are sinful and wrong. 

It will now be our task to specify some of the leading 
wrongs or injuries of slavery, which demonstrate its sinful- 
ness. This will appear from the penalties and wrongs 
inflicted on the slaves by the laws in the civil courts. The 
principal of these will be comprehended under the following 
heads : 

1. The slave is subjected to an extensive system of cruel 
enactments. 

Parts of this system apply to the slave alone; and fox 
every breach of law a severe punishment is demanded, 
And punishments of much greater severity are inflicted on 
the slaves than upon the whites for those offenses for which 
whites and slaves are amenable. Besides, with very few 
exceptions, the penal laws to which slaves alone are subject, 
relate, not to violation of the moral or divine law, but to 
mere human enactments or requirements, in themselves of 
no moral import. 

In South Carolina and Georgia, if a slave be found be- 
yond the limits of the town in which he lives, or off" the 
plantation where he is usually employed, without the com- 
pany of a white person, or a written permission from his 
master or employer, any person may apprehend and punish 
him, "with whipping on the bare back, not exceeding 
twenty lashes." In Mississippi there is a similar punish- 
ment by the direction of a justice; and in Virginia, Ken- 
tucky, and Missouri, at the discretion of the justice, both 
as to the imposition of the punishment and the number of 
stripes. (Stroud, p. 100.) 

In South Carolina and Georgia, if a slave be out of the 
house, etc., or off the plantation, etc., of his master, without 



EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 185 

some white person in company, and shall refuse to submit 
to an examination of any white person, such white person may 
apprehend and moderately correct him, and if he resist 
or strike such white person, he may be lawfully killed. 
(Stroud, p. 101.) 

In Virginia, Mississippi, Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland, 
if a slave shall presume to come upon the plantation of any 
person, without leave in writing from his master, employer, 
etc., not being sent on lawful business, the owner of the 
plantation may inflict ten lashes for every such offense. 
(Stroud, p. 101.) 

In South Carolina and Georgia, any white person, who 
shall see more than seven men-slaves, without some white 
person with them, traveling or assembled together, in any 
high road, may apprehend such slaves, and inflict a whipping 
on each of them, not exceeding twenty lashes apiece. 
(Stroud, p. 101.) 

In South Carolina, if a slave or Indian shall take away or 
let loose, (in North Carolina or Tennessee, take away,) any 
boat or canoe from a landing or other place where the 
owner may have made the same fast, for the first offense 
he shall receive thirty-nine lashes on the bare back, and for 
the second offense shall forfeit, and have cut off from his 
head, one ear. (Stroud, p. 102.) 

In Kentucky and Virginia, for keeping or carrying a gun, 
or powder, or shot, or a club, or other weapon whatsoever, 
offensive or defensive, a slave incurs for each offense thirty- 
nine lashes, by order of a justice of the peace. In North 
Carolina and Tennessee, twenty lashes, by the nearest con- 
stable, without a conviction by the justice. 

In Kentucky, a slave, for having any article for sale, with- 
out a ticket of permission from his master, particularly spec- 
ifying the same and authorizing its sale, receives ten lashes, 
by order of the captain of the patrollers. If the slave be 

16* 



186 EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 

taken before a magistrate, thirty-nine lashes may be ordered. 
It is similar in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi. 
(Stroud, p. 102.) 

In Kentucky and Missouri, if a slave be in an unlawful 
assembly, the captain of the patrollers may inflict ten lashes 
on him. In Kentucky, if the slave be taken before a magis- 
trate he may direct thirty-nine lashes. The augmentation 
of crimes, under the name of unlawful assemblies, is a fa- 
vorite measure of all despotic governments for the suppres- 
sion of liberal principles. Many of the unlawful assemblies 
in the slaveholding states concern meetings of slaves or 
colored people for mental improvement of any kind, as relig- 
ious meetings. Others of them concern any meetings in 
which slaves would meet in view of taking any step what- 
ever to obtain freedom or the melioration of their condition, 
whether by petition, remonstrance, or any other thing. 
(Stroud, p. 102.) 

In North Carolina, for traveling by himself from his mas- 
ter's land to any other place, unless by the most usual and 
accustomed road, the owner of the land on which such 
slave may be found is authorized to inflict forty lashes on 
him ; for traveling in the night without a pass, forty lashes ; 
or being found in another person's negro quarters or kitchen 
forty lashes ; and every negro in whose company such 
vagrant slave may be found, incurs also twenty lashes. 
(Stroud, p. 103.) 

In North Carolina, any person may lawfully kill a slave 
who has been outlawed for running away and lurking in 
swamps. (Stroud, p. 103.) 

For hunting with dogs, in the woods even of his master, 
the slave is subjected to a whipping of thirty lashes, in North 
Carolina. 

Sucn was once the law in Virginia. "In 1705 two jus- 
tices of the peace were authorized, by proclamation, to out- 
law runaways, who might thereafter be killed and destroyed 



EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 18*7 

by any person whatever, by such ways and means as he 
might think fit, without accusation or impeachment of any 
crime for so doing." Speaking of this and similar laws, 
Judge Tucker, of Virginia, says: "Such are the cruelties 
to which a state of slavery gives birth ; such the horrors to 
which the human mind is capable of being reconciled by its 
adoption." Again: he says, "In 1772 some restraints were 
laid upon the practice of outlawing slaves, requiring that it 
should appear to the satisfaction of the justices, that the 
slaves were outlying and doing mischief. These loose ex- 
pressions of the act left too much in the discretion of men 
not much addicted to weighing their import. In 1792 every 
thing relative to the outlawry of slaves was expunged from 
our code, and, I trust, will never again find a place in it." 
(Appendix to Blackstone's Commentaries, second part, pp. 
56, 57; Stroud, p. 103.) 

In South Carolina, a slave endeavoring to entice another 
slave to run away, if provisions, arms, horse, etc., be fur- 
nished for the purpose of aiding the runaway, shall be pun- 
ished with death. And a slave who shall aid and abet the 
slave who endeavors to aid another slave to run away, 
shall also suffer death. (Stroud, p. 103.) 

If a slave harbor, conceal, or entertain a runaway slave, 
in South Carolina and Georgia, he is subjected to corporeal 
punishment, to any extent not affecting life or limb. In 
Maryland thirty-nine stripes is the penalty for harboring one 
hour. (Stroud, p. 104.) 

In Louisiana, a slave, for being on horseback without the 
written permission of his master, incurs twenty lashes. In 
Mississippi, for keeping a dog, the like punishment. In 
South Carolina, for killing a deer, though by the command 
of his master, overseer, etc., unless such command can be 
proved by ticket in writing, twenty lashes. In Maryland, 
"for being guilty of rambling, riding, or going abroad in 
the night, or riding horses in the day-time without leave, a 



188 EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 

slave may bo whipped, cropped, or branded on the cheek 
with the letter R, or otherwise punished, not extending to 
life, or so as to render him unfit for labor." (Stroud, p. 105.) 

In Mississippi, as late as 1824, perhaps the most cruel 
law that ever existed was enacted. The jailer, when a 
slave is committed to him, is required to interrogate the 
slave as to who his master is, then write to the master, and 
if the statement of the slave be incorrect, he is "to give 
the slave twenty-five lashes well laid on;" and then proceed 
to a new interrogation, and a new whipping, and repeat 
them for six months if the slave have given wrong informa- 
tion. And the jailer is irresponsible for the manner in 
which he performs this duty. (Stroud, pp. 105, 106.) 

2. The penal code of the slaveholding states inflicts pun- 
ishments of much greater severity upon slaves than upon 
white persons convicted of similar offenses. 

In Virginia, murder in the first degree, and arson, are 
crimes punishable with death, whether the offender be white 
or black, bond or free. But there are at least seventy-one 
crimes for which slaves are capitally punished, though 
in none of these are whites punished in a manner more 
severely than imprisonment in the penitentiary. (Stroud, 
pp. 107-110.) 

In Mississippi, where the laws in regard to slaves are 
much less severe than in Virginia, there are twelve crimes 
for which death is the punishment for all. But there are 
at least thirty-eight crimes for which slaves are punished 
with death, but for which white persons are punished only 
with imprisonment, fine, or the like. 

In Kentucky, whites forfeit life for four crimes only; 
while there are eleven crimes for which slaves are capitally 
punished. All other offenses, when perpetrated by slaves, 
are punishable with whipping only, not exceeding thirty- 
nine lashes, except for advising the murder of any one; 
and for this offense one hundred may be given. 



EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 189 

In South Carolina, white persons suffer death for twenty- 
seven offenses ; slaves for thirty-six offenses. 

In Georgia, whites are punished capitally for three crimes 
only; slaves for at least nine. All other offenses, com- 
mitted by slaves, may be punished at the discretion of the 
court before whom the slave may be tried, not extending to 
life or limb. (Stroud, pp. 110-1 IT.) 

Slaves, offending against the laws, are chiefly subjected 
to two species of punishment — whipping and death. Crop- 
ping and the pillory are seldom directed, unless in con- 
junction with whipping. In some states transportation is 
authorized, upon certain conditions, as a commutation for 
death. To secure the person of a slave previous to trial, 
imprisonment is resorted to. But as a punishment after 
conviction, except in Louisiana, it is unknown. The exclu- 
sion of imprisonment, or penitentiary, as a mode of punish- 
ment for slaves, has led to the multiplication of capital 
offenses. As dismemberment would diminish the value of 
slaves, it has been but little resorted to. Corporeal pun- 
ishment, not extending to life or limb — which is another 
name for excessive whipping — though sanctioned in some 
cases, is liable to the same objection as dismemberment. 
"In general, therefore, death has been resorted to," says 
Stroud, "as the only punishment, according to the senti- 
ments of slaveholders, adapted to a state of slavery, for all 
offenses except those of a brutal nature." (Stroud, pp. 
117-119.) 

3. Slaves are prosecuted and tried upon criminal accusa- 
tions, in a manner inconsistent with the rights of humanity. 

Trial by jury is the palladium of civil liberty. It was 
imported from England by the American colonies, and 
became an integral part of their laws. But, as African 
slavery originated in the foulest iniquity, and was continued 
in the same temper, and by means similar to its source, 
trial by jury in general was not allowed to the slaves. It 



190 EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 

is true that the Constitution of the United States and those 
of the states secure to the citizen, impeached of crime, the 
benefit of trial by jury ; but as usage had left the slave out 
of the range of this provision, the like exclusion continues 
to this day in most of the states. Yet there is considerable 
of diversity on this subject in the different states. 

In Kentucky, a slave charged with an offense punishable 
with death, is entitled to the benefit both of the grand and 
petit juries. He is to be "tried and prosecuted in the 
circuit courts only, and in the same manner, and under the 
same forms of trial, as are by law prescribed in the cases 
of free persons." 

In Georgia, on capital charges, there is no provision for 
a grand jury; yet a trial by a petit jury is guaranteed. 
The law of Mississippi is similar to that of Georgia. In 
Alabama it is similar. In Maryland, when the life of a 
slave is pending, trial by jury is granted. But in the minor 
offenses, the summary mode of whipping is resorted to 
without such formalities as juries. (Stroud, pp. 119-123.) 

But trial by jury is denied to the slave, even in criminal 
accusations which may affect his life, in the states of South 
Carolina, Virginia, and Louisiana. The substitute of trial 
by jury is called "the justices and freeholders' court." In 
South Carolina this court is composed of two justices, and 
three, four, or five freeholders. In Louisiana a judge of 
the court may act in the place of the two justices. In 
Virginia the court is five justices, with the aid of counsel, 
and the justices must decide unanimously. 

Besides, in the trial of a slave, the testimony of a slave, 
without oath or solemn affirmation, is deemed sufficient. 

Such is the summary manner in which slaves are punished 
for capital offenses. (Stroud, pp. 123-126.) 

The most general punishment for slaves is "corporeal 
punishment, not extending to life or limb," as the expression 
is generally in the acts of legislatures. Cutting off the 



EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 191 

ears, and the pillory, are in force in Georgia, North and 
South Carolina, and Delaware. But the punishment of 
universal prevalence is whipping. The infliction of this 
punishment to the extent of "twenty lashes on the bare 
back, well laid on," in very many cases, needs not the in- 
tervention of any magistrate. Any white person, of any 
description, in many cases, may do this. And should even 
death ensue by accident, while the slave is receiving mod- 
erate correction, the Constitution of Georgia and the laws 
of North Carolina denominate the offense justifiable homi- 
cide. In offenses requiring thirty-nine or forty lashes, the 
case is mostly brought before a magistrate. 

4. As the slave can not read, he can not know what the 
law means, or whether there be such laws as condemn him, 
till the penalties of the broken law fall upon him. He can 
not read — he can not learn to read. To exact obedience to 
a law not promulgated, or which can not be known if pro- 
mulgated, is most unjust and cruel. The laws of the south 
have been formed, and now exist, under the charge of this 
cruelty. The hardened convict in the penitentiary has the 
laws read to him on entrance into its walls. But the guilt- 
less slave is subjected to an extensive system of cruel enact- 
ments, of no part of which, probably, has he ever heard. 

"In 1824 a Virginia jury propounded to the judges of 
the Court of Appeals, the highest court of law in that 
state, this question : ' Can a master be indicted for beating 
his slave cruelly, inhumanly, and beyond the bounds of 
moderation?' The Court said that this was a very 'grave' 
and 'delicate' question, which they should not then decide. 
This question has never been decided judicially in any of 
the slave states ; nor has it been raised in any except Vir- 
ginia. But who does not see that not to decide was deciding 
it? The most solemn decision in favor of the master could 
have conferred no power, which the withholding of a decis- 
ion did not leave him. It left right with might, where it 



192 EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 

has always been, and gave a new sanction to the unholy- 
union by refusing to disturb it." (Child's Oration.) 

5. The master may, at his discretion, inflict any species 
of punishment upon the person of his slave. 

This power of the master, to the extent here implied, is 
not sanctioned by express law. On the contrary, as far as 
the laws are concerned, the life, at least, of the slave is 
safe from the authorized violence of the master. Laws are 
not wanting; but they can not be enforced. The laws do 
not sanction crime, but they do not punish it. This arises 
chiefly from the exclusion of the testimony of colored per- 
sons from the trial of a white person. 

There was a time, too, when the murder of a slave, in 
most of the states, was followed by a pecuniary fine only. 
Now, the willful, malicious, and deliberate murder of a 
slave, by a white person, is declared to be punishable with 
death in every state. (Stroud, pp. 36, 37.) 

The law of North Carolina, of 1*798, runs thus : " Whereas, 
by another act of Assembly, passed in the year 17*74, the 
killing of a slave, however wanton, cruel, and deliberate, is 
only punishable, in the first instance, by imprisonment, and 
paying the value thereof to the owner, which distinction of 
criminality, between the murder of a white person and one 
who is equally a human creature, but merely of a different 
complexion, is disgraceful to humanity, and degrading, in 
the highest degree, to the laws and principles of a free, 
Christian, and enlightened country, Be it enacted, etc., that 
if any person shall hereafter be guilty of willfully and ma- 
liciously killing a slave, such offender shall, upon the first 
conviction thereof, be adjudged guilty of murder, and shall 
suffer the same punishment as if he had killed a free man; 
provided, always, this act shall not extend to the person 
killing a slave outlawed by virtue of any act of Assembly of 
this state, or to any slave in the act of resistance to his law- 
ful owner or master, or to any slave dying under moderate 



EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 193 

correction." The law of Tennessee has a like proviso. The 
law of Georgia is similar, with a similar proviso, in these 
words : " Except in case of insurrection of such slave, and 
unless such death should happen by accident in givino- such 
slave moderate correction." 

The impunity granted to the murderer of the outlawed 
slave is certainly inconsistent with the declaration of North 
Carolina, that there is no difference between the murder of 
a white and colored person; especially as a declaration 
of outlawry is authorized when a slave runs away from his 
master, conceals in some obscure retreat, and to sustain life 
procures provisions as best he can. 

Furthermore, to call the "correction" of a slave which 
causes death moderate is absurd; for how could that be 
moderate which produces death ? 

Finally : this moderate correction of a slave robs him of 
the protection of the act, when the murderer is on his trial. 
On trials for capital offenses, the compassion of a jury is 
ready to seize on any plausible plea to free themselves 
from the painful duty of convicting a fellow-creature. 
Strong evidence will not be required to induce the belief 
that the murderer's design was correction — that the measure 
was moderate, and, of course, the death was accidental. 

In South Carolina, the willful murder of a slave is pun- 
ished by death, if it can be proved by white persons. But 
"if any person shall, on a sudden heat or 2 mss i° n > or by 
undue correction, kill his own slave, or the slave of any 
other person," he shall be fined in the sum of five hundred 
dollars. Where the life of a slave is so feebly protected, 
his limbs can not be secure, as the following law of South 
Carolina, in 1*740, will show, and which is now in force, as 
far as we can ascertain: "In case any person shall willfully 
cut out the tongue, put out the eye, castrate, or cruelly 
scald, burn, or deprive any slave of any limb or member, 
or shall inflict any other cruel punishment, other than by 

17 



] 04 EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 

whipping or beating with a horsewhip or cow skin, switch 
or small stick, or by putting irons on, or confining or im- 
prisoning such slave, every such person shall, for every 
such offense, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds current 
money." Here the direct legislation sanctions the beating, 
without limit, with a horsewhip, cow-skin, switch, or small 
stick, putting on irons, or imprisoning for life. Thus the 
legislature sanctions inflictions at least as bad as those it 
denominates cruel punishments. South Carolina has yet 
much to learn from the Christian code. Nay, her legis- 
lators would do well to go to school to Moses, whose law 
teaches, " If a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye 
of his maid, that it perish, he shall let him go free for his 
eye's sake. And if he smite out his man-servant's tooth, or 
his maid-servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his 
tooth's sake," Exodus xxi, 26, 27. 

Louisiana, in her revised code, follows closelv enough 
the example of South Carolina, as follows: "The slave is 
entirely subject to the will of his master, who may correct 
and chastise him, though not with unusual rigor, nor so as 
to maim or mutilate him, or to expose him to the danger 
of loss of life, or to cause his death." The import of 
unusual rigor may be learned from the fact, that the law 
in South Carolina had been in full force in Louisiana for 
many years before the revised code was adopted, so that 
the usage of South Carolina was the common usage of 
Louisiana. 

While the law r s of Mississippi forbid all inhumanity and 
injury to slaves extending to life or limb, the laws also de- 
clare, " ~No cruel or unusual punishment shall be inflicted 
on any slave within this state," under the penalty of a sum 
not exceeding five hundred dollars. But without the testi- 
mony of the slave, a law of this nature is nugatory, in 
general. Besides, cruel or unusual mean precisely the 
same thing, and will be so construed by the court. And 



EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 195 

what horrible cruelties may be inflicted under the name of 
usual punishments, may be gathered from the laws of 
South Carolina and Louisiana. 

The Constitution of Missouri empowers the Legislature 
"to oblige the owners of slaves to treat them with human- 
ity, and to abstain from all injuries to them extending to 
life or limb." It is also made the duty of the Legislature 
"to pass such laws as may be necessary for this purpose." 
In the place of protecting laws, according to the Constitu- 
tion, there is an act which confers on the master a power 
which may be perverted to the most cruel purposes. "If 
any slave resist his or her master, mistress, overseer, or 
employer, or refuse to obey his or her law T ful commands, 
it shall be lawful for such master, etc., to commit such 
slave to the common gaol of the county, there to remain 
at the pleasure of the master, etc.; and the sheriff shall 
receive such slave, and keep him, etc., in confinement, at 
the expense of the person committing him or her." In 
most cases, before such imprisonments are resorted to, we 
may expect that great severity of chastisement had previ- 
ously been administered to the unhappy slave. (Stroud, 
pp. 37-43.) 

"Upon a fair review of what has been written on the 
subject of this proposition, the result is found to be, that the 
master's power to inflict corporeal punishment to any extent, 
short of life and limb, is fully sanctioned by law, in all the 
slaveholding states — that the master, in at least two states, 
is expressly protected in using the horsew r hip and cow-skin 
as instruments for beating his slave — that he may, with 
entire impunity, in the same states, load his slave with 
irons, or subject him to perpetual imprisonment whenever 
he may so choose — that for cruelly scalding, willfully 
cutting out the tongue, putting out an eye, and for any 
other dismemberment, if proved, a fine of one hundred 
pounds currency only is incurred in South Carolina — that 



196 EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 

though in all the states the willful, deliberate, and mali- 
cious murder of the slave is now directed to be punished 
with death, yet, as in the case of a white offender, none 
except whites can give evidence, a conviction can seldom, if 
ever, take place." (Stroud, p. 43.) 

6. "All the power of the master over the slave may be 
exercised, not by himself only in person, but by any one 
whom he may depute as his agent." (Stroud, p. 44.) 

Louisiana is the only state which has formally legislated 
on this point, although usage in other states is of the same 
authority with law. The language of the act of Louisiana 
is a good definition of slaverv, and is as follows : " The con- 
dition of a slave being merely a passive one, his subordina- 
tion to his master, and to all who represent him, is not sus- 
ceptible of any modification or restriction — except in what 
can incite the slave to the commission of crime — in such 
manner that he owes to his master and to all his family a 
respect without bounds, and an absolute obedience, and he 
is consequently to execute all the orders which he receives 
from him, his said master, or from them." (Stroud, p. 44.) 

Stevens, in his "Slavery of the West Indies," p. 46, gives 
in the following language the picture of slavery in every 
place w T here it exists: "The slave is liable to be coerced or 
punished by the whip, and to be tormented by every species 
of personal ill treatment, subject only to the exceptions al- 
ready mentioned — that is, the deprivation of life or limb — by 
the attorney, manager, overseer, driver, and every other per- 
son to whose government or control the owner may choose 
to subject him, as fully as by the owner himself. Nor is 
any special mandate or express general power necessary 
for this purpose; it is enough that the inflictor of the 
violence is set over the slave for the moment, by the owner, 
or by any of his delegates or sub-delegates, of whatever 
rank or character." 

This power of deputation is one of the worst features of 



EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 197 

slavery, although it is necessary to the existence of slavery. 
It was not permitted by the law of villenage. The chief 
delegate of the master is the overseer, thus described by 
Wirt, in his life of Patrick Henry : " Last and lowest, a 
feculum of beings called overseers — the most abject, de- 
graded, unprincipled race — always cap in hand to the dons 
who employed them, and furnishing materials for the exercise 
of their pride, insolence, and spirit of domination." But, 
with Mr. Wirt's leave, the driver may compete with the 
overseer for this distinction ; or perhaps many slaveholders 
may excel either overseer or driver for the distinction which 
Mr. W T irt gives to his overseer. 

V. We present some practical theories of southern men 
here, as well as practical examples of treating slaves, which 
will reveal the lieart of slavery better than any abstract 
reasoning on the subject. The following is from an essay by 
a distinguished southerner, who enters on the consideration 
of chastisement with great deliberation: 

"How ought slaves to be punished? On this subject we 
may safely appeal to experience. It is certain that no pun- 
ishment is equally efficient in every case. While the occa- 
sional application of the whip tends greatly to preserve the 
obedience of some, it is not even dreaded by others. Under 
these circumstances the slaveholder is bound to study 
thoroughly the character of his people — to watch their 
conduct with a sleepless eye, in order to discover the secret 
spring of their actions. The punishments usually resorted 
to are, 1. Corporeal; 2. Solitary confinement in stocks, or 
solitary confinement alone; 3. Deprivation of privileges; 
4. Additional labor; 5. Transportation. When corporeal 
punishment is inflicted pursuant to a law of the state, the 
slave can receive but thirty-nine stripes ; it is seldom, indeed, 
that the owner gives as many. This mode of arresting the 
commission of crime can not be dispensed with. In many 
cases it is the only instrument which can confidently be 

17* 



198 EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 

relied on to meliorate the character of the refractory delin- 
quent. If to our army the disuse of the lash has been 
prejudicial, to the slaveholder it would operate to deprive 
him of the main support to his authority. For the first 
class of offenses, I consider imprisonment in the stocks at 
night, with or without hard labor in the day, as a powerful 
auxiliary in the cause of good government. His regular 
duty having been performed, the slave anticipates the 
approach of night with the liveliest emotions. To him it is 
the period when he can freely indulge in the various inclina- 
tions of the mind. Then, unrestrained and unwatched, if I 
may be allowed the expression, he acts in any manner which 
his interest or his pleasure might dictate. Deprive him of 
this great source of enjoyment — take from him these hours 
usually passed with his associates, and you readily accom- 
plish that which no other known scheme has yet effected. 
To the correctness of this opinion, many can bear testimony. 
Experience has convinced me, that there is no punishment 
to which the slave looks with more horror than that upon 
which I am commenting, and none which has been attended 
with happier results. 

" Among the privileges of the slave may be numbered 
that of task work. When his daily labor is finished, he is 
at liberty to cultivate his crop, or otherwise to attend to his 
own concerns. For some offenses the changing of task 
work into constant labor from sim to sun, reserving a short 
period only for meals, is a wise and useful regulation. To 
this punishment, if the crime be of an aggravated nature, 
the withholding from the transgressor his usual portion of 
tobacco, meat, and other comforts, might be added. Another 
very efficacious means of correcting bad conduct, is the 
imposition of labor additional to the task work. For theft, 
this is a rational punishment. It is proper on ordinary prin- 
ciples, that the slave by his labor should compensate for the 
loss, which, through the knaverv, the master has sustained. 



EXCESSIVE PENALTIES INCURRED BY THE SLAVE. 199 

Whenever it is obvious that the character of the criminal is 
not likely to be amended by any of the means to which I 
have so briefly adverted, or, that frequent recurrence to 
rigorous punishment is unavoidable to that end, it is far 
better to expel him from society than to contaminate it by 
his example." (Whitemarsh B. Seabrook, of South Car- 
olina.) 



200 GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 



CHAPTER II. 

PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES, IN REFERENCE TO LABOR, FOOD, 
CLOTHING, DWELLINGS, AND HEALTH. 

The slaves, in perfect keeping with the system of slavery, 
may be deprived of the comforts and conveniences of life 
suitable to rational creatures. We will instance in their 
labor, food, clothing, dwellings, and health. This head may 
be termed privations of the slaves. 

1. The master may determine the kind, and degree, and 
time of labor to which the slave shall be subject. 

In most of the slaveholding states the law is silent on this 
point. The codes of Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, 
and Mississippi, speak on the subject. 

The law of Georgia, of 181V, says: "Any owner of a 
slave or slaves who shall cruelly beat such slave or slaves, by 
unnecessary or excessive whipping, by withholding proper 
food and sustenance, by requiring greater labor from such 
slave or slaves, than he, she, or they are able to perform, by 
not affording proper clothing, whereby the health of such 
slave or slaves may be injured and impaired, every such 
owner or owners shall, upon sufficient information being laid 
before the grand jury, be by said jury presented, whereupon 
it shall be the duty of the attorney or solicitor-general to 
prosecute said owner or owners, who, on conviction, shall be 
sentenced to pay a fine or be imprisoned, or both, at the 
discretion of the court." (Stroud, p. 26.) The ostensible 
design of the law is to afford protection to the slave ; but 
as the testimony of colored persons can not be received 
against a white person, the law is a dead letter in most 
cases. The "requiring greater labor than the slave is able 
to perform," forms a charge of a criminal nature. Every 
thing must therefore be strictly proved, and the law must 
be strictly defined; and this would require that all the illegal 



GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 201 

circumstances enumerated in the law should exist, and be 
proved against the master, to constitute the single crime of 
cruelty to the slave. Besides, the cruelty of the owner only 
is made penal ; while the exaction of too much labor by the 
overseer is not provided against. Hence, any cruelties by 
the overseer must pass unpunished. 

In the preamble -of the law of South Carolina, of 1740, 
it is said, "Many owners of slaves and others who have the 
care, management, and overseeing of slaves, do confine them 
so closely to hard labor, that they have not sufficient time 
for natural rest." The act then fixes the hours of labor not 
to exceed fifteen hours, from March to September, nor four- 
teen hours, from September to March. The penalty is from 
five to twenty pounds, current money. 

In Mississippi, the law allows half an hour for breakfast 
during the year, and two hours for dinner in summer, and an 
hour and a half in winter ; but if the meals of the slaves 
are prepared for them, half an hour may be taken from the 
dinner hour. 

The laws of South Carolina and Louisiana, as well as those 
of Georgia, are incapable of being executed, and therefore 
inoperative, and must give way to the cupidity of the mas- 
ter, whenever circumstances excite the passion of gain. 

The time of labor in South Carolina is enormous ; it may 
reach fourteen or fifteen hours a day. In Jamaica ten hours 
was the extent to which slaves could be employed in work. 
In the penitentiaries of Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia, the 
time of labor does not exceed eight hours, in November, 
December, and January, nine in February and October, and 
ten hours the rest of the year. Thus, ten hours make up 
the largest space out of twenty-four hours which can be 
exacted from convicted felons whose punishment consists of 
hard labor. Yet the slave of South Carolina, under a law 
professing to extend humanity to him, may be required to 
toil for fifteen hours within the same period. 



202 GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 

In the extreme south, where cotton, sugar, and rice are 
raised, and where the plantations are large, and many hands 
are employed in field work, the slaves are generally worked 
hard, or overwrought. At least during portions of the year 
they are worked from dawn of day till night ; and in making 
sugar very often they are employed a considerable portion 
of the night. It is calculated that slaves will wear out, 
under these circumstances, in from five to seven years. 
The accurate calculators about how much profit may be 
made in the wear and tear of human flesh, estimate, that it 
is most economical to require twice the amount of labor 
during the boiling season in making sugar, in order to 
accomplish the labor with one set of hands. By pursuing 
this course they could afford to sacrifice a set of hands once 
in seven years ; and this horrible system is practiced to a 
considerable extent. (See " American Slavery As It Is," 
pp. 35-40.) 

Some testimonies here will present this subject in its true 
light. "Many owners of slaves, and others who have the 
management of slaves, do confine them so closely at hard 
labor that they have not sufficient time for natural rest." 
(Legislature of S. Carolina; see 2 Brenard's Digest, 243.) 

" So laborious is the task of raising, beating, and cleaning 
rice, that had it been possible to obtain European servants 
in sufficient numbers, thousands and tens of thousands must 
have perished." (History of South Carolina, vol. i, p. 120.) 

"Is it not obvious that the way to render their situation 
more comfortable, is to allow them to be taken where there 
is not the same motive to force the slave to incessant toil 
that there is in the country where cotton, sugar, and tobacco 
are raised for exportation? It is proposed to hem in the 
blacks where they are Jiard worked, that they may be ren- 
dered unproductive and the race be prevented from increas- 
ing. The proposed measure would be extreme cruelty to the 
blacks. You would doom them to liard labor." (Hon. 



GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 203 

Alexander Smyth, Speech on Missouri Question, January 
28, 1820.) 

"At the rolling of sugars, an interval of from two to 
three months, they work both night and day, abridged of 
their sleep. They scarce retire to rest during the whole 
period." (Travels in Louisiana, p. 81.) 

" The slaves are driven to the field in the mornincr about 
four o'clock. The general calculation is to get them at work 
by daylight. The time for breakfast is between nine and 
ten o'clock. This meal is sometimes eaten 'bite and work;'' 
others allow fifteen minutes; and this is the only rest the 
slave has while in the field. I have never known a case of 
stopping an hour in Louisiana; in Mississippi the rule is 
milder, though entirely subject to the will of the master. 
On cotton plantations, in cotton-picking time — that is, from 
October to Christmas — each hand has a certain quantity to 
pick, and is Hogged if his task is not accomplished ; their 
task is such as to keep them all the while busy." (George 
W. Westgate, who lived a number of years in the south- 
western states.) 

As to the argument from self-interest, that it is the interest 
of the slaveholders not to overwork the slaves, Ave may 
remark that this has two applications. When breeding- 
slaves becomes, by choice or circumstances, the policy of 
slaveholders, then their self-interest leads them ordinarily 
to supply them with sufficient food and clothing, and to 
exact only moderate labor. But when the object is merely 
to calculate on the profit and loss of outlay and income in 
the calculations of slavery, then excessive labor and waste 
of life form the more economical plan. On the sugar plant- 
ations it is necessary to employ about twice the amount of 
labor during the boiling season ; hence, the labor at that 
season is often doubled. By pursuing this plan the planters 
could afford to sacrifice a set of hands every five or seven 
years. And this plan is frequently pursued. When the 



204 GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 

boiling season commences, it must be pushed without cessa- 
tion, and by doubling the work, half the hands will do ; and 
thus there is a great saving in having to purchase only half 
the number of hands, and also to maintain this number. 
Thus self-interest leads to overworking, and even killing off, 
by this process, multitudes of human beings. 

By this process of overworking in the West Indies, the 
slaves were hurried prematurely to their graves in great 
numbers. The same, though perhaps not to the same 
extent, occurs in the sugar plantations of the United States. 
The sacrifice of human life, in the sugar, cotton, and rice 
regions in the United States, has been very great, and the 
waste has been supplied from the slave-growing states of 
Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky. These have supplied 
the victims to replenish the grave-yards of the rice, cotton, 
and sugar regions of the far south. The self-interest of 
slave-breeders leads them to use the means of increasing* 
the number, health, and white color of the marketable 
negroes, from their home stock. And the self-interest of 
the raisers of cotton, sugar, and rice, is to have half the 
number of hands, wear them out in from five to seven years, 
and from this economical process save more than will buy 
fresh hands, after even paying the expenses of burying the 
worn-out slaves. 

It is but proper to state, that in the grain-growing states 
the slaves, in general, are not overworked. Perhaps in 
these states their labor does not exceed that of laborers in 
other countries. The same will apply to most of the house 
hands even in the far south. 

But there seems to be a terrible retribution of Heaven 
resting on the system of slavery in reference to labor. The 
slaves were introduced into America in order to relieve their 
masters from work, as well as to make them rich by the 
toils of the slave. All this was forced labor — labor without 



GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 205 

remuneration. The slave having no interest in the labor of 
his own hands, will not, in general, work, except under the 
whip. He will work as little as he can. He becomes an eye- 
servant, Hence, it has come to pass, that in all the grain- 
growing states, where mostly only a family or two of blacks 
are owned by a white family, the slaves not being constantly 
watched, they have contracted the slowest methods of 
work. They do as little as they can. Hence, they have, 
by the retributions of the injustice exercised on them, be- 
come the most expensive laborers. And slave labor is now 
dearer than hired labor. Thus, its own injustice renders it 
profitless; and the curse of God adds to its unproductive- 
ness. The very soil partakes of this curse. The land wears 
out under slave culture. The indolence of the whites caps 
the climax of penal sanctions, so that the land spews out 
its inhabitants, and drives them to new countries, because 
the older countries can no longer sustain the double curse 
resting on it. 

2. The master may supply the slave with such food, both 
as to quantity and quality, as he may think proper, or may 
find convenient. 

In North Carolina, the legal standard of food for a slave 
must not be less than a quart of corn per day. 

In Louisiana, the standard by law is " one barrel of Indian 
corn — in the ear — or the equivalent thereof in rice, beans, 
or other grain, and a pint of salt, every month." 

In South Carolina, sufficient food is enjoined by law. 
What is meant by sufficient food, we learn from Hon. Robt. 
Turnbull, a slaveholder of South Carolina, who says, "The 
subsistence of the slaves consists, from March till August, 
ot corn ground into grists, or meal, made into what is called 
hominy, or baked into corn bread. The other six months 
they are fed upon the sweet potato. Meat, when given, is 
only by way of indulgence or favor." 

18 



206 GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 

Thomas S. Clay, Esq., of Georgia, a slaveholder, in his 
address before the Georgia presbytery in 1833, says, "The 
quantity allowed by custom is a peck of corn a week." 

The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, May 
30, 1788, says, "A single peck of corn a week, or the like 
measure of rice, is the ordinary quantity of provision for a 
hard-working slave; to which a small quantity of meat is 
occasionally, though rarely, added." 

The slaves, in general, are allowed no meat. This ap- 
pears from the fact, that in North Carolina and Louisiana, 
the only states which regulate the slave rations by law, the 
legal ration contains no meat. The general allowance on 
plantations is corn, or meal, and salt merely. To this there 
are, doubtless, many exceptions; yet, the number of slave- 
holders who furnish meat for their field hands is small, 
compared with those who do not. The house slaves gener- 
ally get meat every day — the offal meat of their master's 
tables. Vegetables form generally no part of the slave's 
allowance. The sole food of the majority is corn, at every 
meal, from day to day, and week to week. In South Caro- 
lina, Georgia, and Florida, the sweet potato is substituted 
for corn a part of the year. 

The quantity of food generally allowed to a full-grown 
field hand, is a peck of corn a week, or a fraction over a 
quart and a gill per day. The legal ration of North Caro- 
lina is less — in Louisiana it is more. Frequently a small 
quantity of meat is added; but this is not the general 
practice with field hands. We may add, in the season of 
pumpkins and other vegetables, the slaves on small planta- 
tions are, to some extent, furnished with these articles. 
Besides, a quart of southern corn weighs about five ounces 
less than a quart of northern corn; so that this is another 
item of importance to show the scanty legal supply for the 
food of the slave. 

The daily rations of the United States soldiers is one 



GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 207 

pound and a quarter of beef, one pound and three-six- 
teenths of bread, and at the rate of eight quarts of beans, 
eight pounds of sugar, four pounds of coffee, two quarts 
of salt, four pounds of candles, and four pounds of soap, to 
every hundred rations. In New Hampshire state prison, one 
and a quarter pounds of meal and fourteen ounces of beef 
for breakfast and dinner, form the standard, and the supper 
is without stint. A similar provision is made in the other 
penitentiaries in the United States and elsewhere. 

In comparing the statistics of rations, we find the average 
daily ration, throughout this country and Europe, exceeds 
the usual slave's allowance at least a pound a day. Besides, 
about one-third the ration of convicts, soldiers, and sailors 
is meat, generally beef; whereas the allowance of the mass 
of the slaves is corn only, or less substantial food. 

We know that the laws of several states, as South Caro- 
lina, Georgia, Louisiana, etc., make it penal to deprive the 
slave of suitable food and clothing. But, as the slave is 
entirely under the control of his master, is unprovided with 
a protector, and as he can not be a witness against his mas- 
ter or make complaint against him, the laws have little or 
no force. 

We will here produce the testimony of the Rev. Thomas 
S. Clay, of Georgia, in his "Detail of a plan for the moral 
improvement of negroes on plantations, read before the 
Georgia presbytery," in 1833, and printed at the request 
of the presbytery. In regard to the supply of food, Mr. 
Clay says: "From various causes, this is often not adequate 
to the support of a laboring man. The quantity allowed by 
custom is a peck of corn per week, and if it be sound flint 
corn, this is sufficient to sustain health and strength under 
moderate labor. But there is often a defect here; the 
quantity is then insufficient; and who should be astonished, 
if the negro take from the field or corn-house the supply 
necessary for his craving appetite, and then justifies his act. 



208 GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 

and denies that it is stealing ? It is a common statement 
made by intelligent negroes, that without the aid of their 
own gardens, poultry-house, and corn-fields, their allowance 
would not hold out. Should the quality of the corn be 
poor, let them have their food by weight, giving not less 
than fourteen pounds per week of corn. The allowance 
should, on no occasion, be given on the Sabbath ; besides 
being a violation of God's law, it interferes with attendance 
at church. It should be given on stated days; the same 
day every week. Time should be allowed the negroes for 
receiving their provisions, neither should they be delayed, 
after a hard days work, till late at night." (See Quarterly 
Antislavery Magazine for October, 1835, p. 98.) 

So the food is " often not adequate to the support of a 
laboring man." It is "often insufficient," in Georgia, and 
testimony to the same amount can be adduced in reference 
to every slave state. Hence, the' slave is taught and com- 
pelled to steal; and the thefts of slaves, so notorious in all 
ages, are chargeable on the system of slavery, and not on 
the slaves themselves. 

It may be observed, however, that in the northern slave 
states, as Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland, the 
slaves generally receive sufficient food. But this is a result 
arising from other causes than any provision of slavery. It 
is in spite of slavery. Principles and influences in these 
states are at work, which are undermining the system in spite 
of its injustice and its privations. Indeed, every- where, to 
a greater or less extent, the workings of conscience, and of 
sound principles, offer an antagonism to slavery which ulti- 
mately, by God's blessing, will overthrow it. 

3. The clothing of the slaves by day, and their covering 
by night, are inadequate either for comfort or decency, in 
any or most of the slaveholding states. 

In South Carolina and Georgia a sufficiency of clothing 
is enjoined by statute. But that sufficiency is mostly 



GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 209 

determined by usage; and to this we must have recourse, 
in order to ascertain in what this sufficiency consists. 

In Louisiana, the law enjoined on the owner to give the 
slave "one linen shirt and pantaloons for the summer, and 
a linen shirt and woolen great-coat and pantaloons for the 
winter." (Stroud, p. 31.) 

Mr. Turnbull, of South Carolina, a slaveholder, thus de- 
scribes the clothing of slaves: "It consists of a winter and 
a summer suit; the former a jacket, waistcoat, and overalls 
of Welsh plains, and the latter of osnaburg or homespun, 
or other substitutes. They have shoes, hats, and handker- 
chiefs, and other little articles, such as tobacco, pipes, rum, 
etc. Their dwellings consist of good clay cabins, with clay 
chimneys." 

Mr. Hawley, a Baptist minister, who resided fourteen 
years in North and South Carolina, describes the customary 
clothing of slaves in these states as follows : " The rule 
where slaves are hired out, is two suits of clothes per year, 
one pair of shoes, and one blanket; but as it relates to the 
great body of the slaves, this can not be called a general 
rule. On many plantations the children, under ten or 
twelve years old, go entirely naked, or, if clothed at all, 
they have nothing more than a shirt. The cloth is of the 
coarsest kind, far from being durable or warm; and their 
shoes frequently come to pieces in a few weeks. I have 
never known any provision made or time allowed for the 
washing of clothes. If they wish to wash, as they have 
generally but one suit, they go, after their day's toil, to some 
stream, build a fire, pull off their clothes and wash them in 
the stream, and dry them by the fire ; and in some instances 
they wear their clothes till they are worn off, without wash- 
ing. I have never known an instance of a slaveholder 
furnishing his slaves with stockings or mittens." (See 
American Slavery, p. 95.) 

The house servants generally, and the greater number of 

18* 



210 GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 

slaves in the grain-growing states, have clothing furnished 
them in amount and quality approaching to comfort, but 
with little reference to decency. Yet some have both com- 
fortable and decent clothes. It is otherwise with the field 
hands and the children, both male and female, whose naked- 
ness is shamelessly exposed, at the expense both of modesty 
and decorum ; while at the same time, in the case of the 
field hands, much suffering is the result of their being 
poorly clad. Rev. T. S. Clay, whom we have quoted in 
reference to the food of slaves, declares as follows in regard 
to their clothing: " The winter clothes should be given in 
November, and those for summer in April or May. This 
is often neglected; and consequently the improvident — of 
whom the number is very great — suffer much. And hoAv- 
ever well a negro may endure the cold when at work, or 
sitting by his fireside, the want of warm clothing would be 
a good reason for not attending church." 

We must ascribe the inadequate clothing of the slaves, 
whenever it exists at the expense of comfort and decency, 
to the system of slavery. Wherever either comfort or de- 
cency of clothing exist, slavery has not furnished this. 
The philanthropy and Christian principles of conscientious 
masters have furnished this, in contravention to the spirit 
and the practice of true slavery ; or the exertions of slaves 
themselves, by night work and Sabbath work, and the use 
of any hours of recreation allowed them, in spite of the iron 
laws of slavery, have provided the Sunday dresses, and the 
every-day comforts of clothing. In the system of slavery 
there is no provision for either the comforts or decencies of 
life. Interest will generally lead the master to provide 
clothing, so as to preserve the health and vigor of the 
slave in most cases. Farther than this, slavery provides 
not. The preservation and profitable use of property, is all 
that slavery knows, acknowledges, or provides for ; and this 
is the sum total, and no more, of the aggregate code of 



GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 211 

slavery. Where comfort and decency of clothing exist, 
the extra industry of the slave himself, or the humanity of 
the master, has made the provision, without the least in- 
debtedness to slavery, except a mere tolerance, by way of 
winking at, in consequence of which the public opinion 
formed by a better system than slavery, has prevented the 
decently and comfortably-clothed slave to wear his extra 
clothing, without being divested of it by the same unjust 
system which robs him of himself, enslaves his children as 
soon as they are born, separates them from his bosom when 
they are grown up, and banishes for ever from his associa- 
tion his wife and family. 

4. The dwellings of the slaves are such as to prevent 
family comfort, and to prevent the proper exercise of proper 
family regulations. 

The negro quarters, the name given to the wretched hab- 
itations of the slaves, conveys, in general, the idea of dis- 
comfort, poverty, and misery. Mr. Turnbull says, that in 
South Carolina "the slaves live in clay cabins." In general 
they are small houses, of from ten to twelve feet square, 
with earthen or puncheon floors, seldom boards ; mostl}' - 
without windows, or furniture, and utterly destitute of com- 
fort or convenience. There is generally only one apartment 
for all purposes. 

The Rev. James 'Kelly, in his Essay on Slavery, in 
1*789, p. 1, thus describes the dwellings of slaves in Vir- 
ginia at that time: "The families are miserably crowded 
together in dirty pens, without any real family comfort, 
even where the husband and wife dwell together under one 
master. Their conception and birth — too commonly — are 
not as private as that of brutes in the forest ! A slave hath 
not power to do those duties incumbent on him toward his 
family, nor the satisfaction of being with them in sickness 
and distress." 

In regard to these dwellings, Rev. T. S. Clay says : " Too 



212 GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 

many individuals are crowded into one house, and the 
proper separation of apartments can not be observed." He 
then recommends "such an arrangement, by means of par- 
titions, as to furnish separate apartments for the larger boys 
and girls." Such arrangements are indispensable to the 
comforts and decencies of civilized life, and to the purity of 
Christian morals. But such accommodations would be too 
expensive for the master, whose gains, by this expenditure, 
would be lessened. Besides, it would be one of those means 
calculated to subvert slavery. Slaves, by such treatment, 
would become refined and self-respecting men and women. 
And such an improvement would be a ruinous hit against 
slavery. 

We know that in some places the accommodations of 
houses for the slaves have been improved. But slavery has 
not done it. 

This alone is a striking fact in the degradation and misery 
produced by slavery. Rev. John Rankin, a native of Ten- 
nessee, speaks thus in reference to his own state : " When 
they return to their miserable huts at night, they find not 
there the means of comfortable rest, but on the cold ground 
they must lie, without covering, and shiver while they 
slumber." 

5. The provision for sick, infirm, and aged slaves, is far 
from being either humane or adequate to the objects to be 
relieved. 

There is an act of Georgia, of December 12, 1815, which 
declares : " It shall be the duty of the inferior courts of the 
several counties, on receiving information on oath of any 
infirm slave or slaves being in a suffering situation, from the 
neglect of the owner or owners of such slave or slaves, to 
make particular inquiries into the situation of such slave or 
slaves, and to render such relief as they, in their discretion, 
may think proper." The relief here is confined to infirm 
slaves. But the relief is so far-fetched, it can rarely be 



GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 213 

reached. 1. Information must be given on oath to the 
inferior judges. 2. This must be the oath of a white man, 
who by the act must incur the enmity of a neighbor by 
making such complaint. 3. Then these inferior judges may 
"render such relief as they, in their discretion, may think 
proper." 4. If they decide upon relief, it must be sued for 
at another court, for they can not order an execution on 
their own judgment. Thus, such relief may come when it 
is too late to benefit the poor slave to any extent; or it may 
never come. This may be considered as a fair specimen of 
the relief provided for suffering slaves, by the slave laws. 

The late Dr. Channing, of Boston, who once resided in 
Virginia, states as follows, in his work on slavery, p. 62, 
first edition : " I can not forget my feelings on visiting a 
hospital belonging to the plantation of a gentleman highly 
esteemed for his virtues, and whose manners and conver- 
sation expressed much benevolence and conscientiousness. 
When I entered with him the hospital, the first object on 
which my eye fell was a young woman, very ill, probably 
approaching death. She was stretched on the floor. Her 
head rested on something like a pillow, but her body and 
limbs were extended on the hard boards. The owner, I 
doubt not, had, at least, as much kindness as myself; but 
he was so used to see the slaves living without common 
comforts, that the idea of unkindness, in the present in- 
stance, did not enter his mind." 

The following is from Sarah M. Grimke, of South Caro- 
lina: "When the Ladies' Benevolent Society, in Charleston, 
South Carolina, of which I was a visiting commissioner, 
first went into operation, we were applied to for the relief 
of several aged colored persons. One case I particularly 
remember, of an aged woman Avho was dreadfully burned 
from having fallen into the fire ; she was living with some 
free blacks, who had taken her in out of compassion. On 
inquiry, we found that nearly all the colored persons who 



214 GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 

had solicited aid, were slaves, who, being no longer able to 
work for their owners, were thus inhumanly cast out in their 
sickness and old age, and must have perished, but for the 
kindness of their friends." 

The pecuniary interests of the slaveholder will have their 
force, in reference to the sick who are expected to recover. 
And yet the accurate calculation of profit and loss may act, 
as a distinguished man is reported to have done, who owned 
about three hundred slaves, who, " after employing a physi- 
cian among them for some time, ceased to do so, alleging 
as the reason, that it was cheaper to lose a few negroes 
every year, than to pay a physician." 

Mr. George A. Avery, elder of a Presbyterian church, 
Kew York, who resided some years in Virginia, writes as 
follows : 

"The manner of treating the sick slaves, and especially 
in chronic cases, was, to my mind, peculiarly revolting. My 
opportunities for observation in this department were better 
than in, perhaps, any other, as the friend under whose 
direction I commenced my medical studies, enjoyed a high 
reputation as a surgeon. I rode considerably with him in 
practice, and assisted in the surgical operations and dress- 
ings from time to time. In confirmed cases of disease, it 
was common for the master to place the subject under the 
care of a physician or surgeon, at whose expense the patient 
should be kept ; and if death ensued to the patient, or the 
disease was not cured, no compensation was to be made; 
but if cured, a bonus of one, two, or three hundred dollars 
was to be given. No provision was made against the bar- 
barity or neglect of the physician. I have seen fifteen or 
twenty of these helpless sufferers crowded together, in the 
true spirit of slaveholding inhumanity, like the brutes that 
perish, and driven, from time to time, like brutes, into a 
common yard, where they had to suffer any and every 
operation and experiment which interest, caprice, or profes- 



GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 215 

sional curiosity might prompt, unrestrained by law, public 
sentiment, or the claims of common humanity." 

Besides, in the process of acclimation, those transferred 
from the northern to the southern slave states, suffer much 
by disease and death. And in advertisements we find the 
venders very careful to state acclimation as an important 
item in the value of slaves. Some calculate that about 
twenty-five per cent, lose their lives when brought from 
Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and the hill countries, into 
the sugar plantations and the rice swamps. Certain it is, 
that the loss of life, by this change, falls little short of the 
mortality common to the acclimation of the Africans in 
America, when the slave-trade was in full operation; if, 
indeed, it is not now as extensively carried on as ever in 
reference to the South American countries, and smuggling 
into portions of the United States. 

6. The privations endured by slaves, in reference to labor, 
food, clothing, dwellings, and treatment when sick, show 
clearly the degrading and sinful character of the system. 
The master prescribes the time and amount of labor which 
the slave must render. Then he fixes on the quantity and 
quality of the food which he supplies. The clothing, by 
day and night, is doled out with scanty stinting to the slave. 
His habitation, no matter how uncomfortable, which his mas- 
ter supplies, must be received with submission. It will not, 
then, be marvelous, that the system of disfranchise which 
treats the slave in this manner, would neglect him when he 
can be no longer profitable, or when sickness invades him. 
Parents enjoying freedom do not consider themselves safe, 
in civilized society, when they deliver their property to their 
children, and depend on them afterward for supplies. The 
history of the world shows what human nature is on this 
matter; namely, it can not be trusted. And is the system 
of slavery guiltless in this respect? No such thing. In 
food, clothing, and habitation, and exacting labor, it will do 



216 GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. 

wrong-. It always has done wrong. It now does wrong. 
It can not do otherwise than wrong. Its sin remaineth, and 
will remain. Its sin is a part of itself in this respect. 

In this are manifested some of the most glaring sins con- 
demned in the Bible. This not only withholds wages, but 
it withholds food itself, both in quantity and quality. It 
strips the poor, and makes them go naked, without due 
garments by day or covering by night. Therefore, the sys- 
tem is sinful; or if it be sinful to make people hungry and 
naked, by taking their own hard-earned food and clothing 
from them, slavery is chargeable with sin. 

Dr. Charming, p. 163, well portrays slavery when he 
says, in reference to the facts which we now mention : 
"Facts of this kind, which make no noise, which escape or 
mislead a casual observer, help to show the character of 
slavery more than occasional excesses of cruelty, though 
these must be frequent. They show how deceptive are the 
appearances of good connected with it; and how much 
may be suffered under the manifestation of much kindness. 
It is, in fact, next to impossible to estimate precisely the 
evils of slavery. The slave writes no books, and the slave- 
holder is too inured to the system, and too much interested 
in it, to be able to comprehend it. Perhaps the laws of 
the slave states are the most unexceptionable witnesses 
which we can obtain from that quarter, and the barbarity 
of these is decisive testimony against an institution which 
requires such means for its support." 

V. The privations of slaves, in reference to food, clothing, 
dwellings, sickness, and labor, form one very striking feature 
of the moral character of slavery. The spirit and the 
practice of the system will appear fully in considering these 
items. Every thing saved in expenditure, as well as pro- 
duced by skill and labor,, go to make up the profits or gain 
of slavery. Hence the food, in quantity, quality, and mode 
of preparation, is provided on the cheapest plan, in order to 



GENERAL PRIVATIONS OF 8LAVEB. 217 

save expense. The clothing, top, in cheapness, is a matter 
of importance. The dwellings are also most miserable, 
costing next to nothing, in construction, furniture, repairs, 

without the appurtenances belonging to decency, comfort, of 
morals. And then the labor is to be as great as possible, 
and laid out on the most profitable productions. 

Now, among the declarations of Scripture, none are more 
pointed in denunciation, than those which refer to the sin 
of even refusing to give clothing to the naked, food to the 
hungry, attendance to the sick, and the like. But slavery 
does more: it takes from the slave; the products of his 
labor and toil, which would clothe, feed, and nurse him, 
and then clothes him with rags, feeds him on offals and 
husks, and neglects him in his distress. To refuse to clothe 
and feed those who have made themselves poor, even by 
their sins or want of economy, is a crying sin before God. 
T>ut to make persons poor, in taking the grain out of their 
granaries, taking the clothes out of their wardrobe, and 
then replacing them only in part with the refuse and the 
vile surplus of our rich stores, becomes peculiarly offensive 
to God. Such are the sins of slavery ever since it began, 
even to this day. And such it must ever remain, till Grod 
will visit it with the plague of total destruction, because it 
has despised the poor, it has taken the only garment of the 
naked from him, and, with harpy snatch, has seized and 
carried their own food from the table of the hungry, starving- 
poor. The \engeance of God will follow it down to total 
destruction. 

19 



218 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 



CHAPTERIII. 

CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

1. The punishments and treatment of slaves amount to 
cruelties or inhumanity. The truth of this statement will 
appear from the following considerations. 

The law of the slave states assails the persons of the 
slaves by depriving them of trial by jury. It assails their 
consciences by forbidding them to assemble for worship, 
unless their oppressors are present. It assails their charac- 
ters, by branding them as liars — by denying them their oath 
in law. The law exposes their modesty, by leaving their 
masters to clothe or let them go naked, as he pleases. The 
law exposes their health, by leaving him to feed or starve 
them; to work them, wet or dry, with or without sleep; to 
lodge them with or without covering, as he thinks proper. 
It robs them of marriage relations, parental authority, and 
filial obligations. In short, the laws not only refuse to 
protect the slaves, but they rob them of their sacred, 
inalienable rights. 

The law of slavery deprives man of his right to himself, 
of his right to his body, his right to improve his mind, to 
worship God according to conscience, his right to receive 
and enjoy what he earns, his right to live with his wife and 
children, his right to better his condition, his right to eat 
when he is hungry, to rest when he is tired, to sleep when 
he needs it, to cover his nakedness with clothing. It makes 
the slave a prisoner for life on the plantation, except when 
his master pleases to let him out with a pass, or sells him, 
and transfers him in irons to another place. It authorizes 
human merchants to traverse the country, buying up men, 
women, and children — chaining them in coffles, and driving 
them forever from their relatives ; it sets them on the auc- 
tion table to be handled, scrutinized, knocked off to the 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 219 

highest bidder ; it proclaims they shall not have their liberty, 
and should their masters set them free, the law seizes them 
and again reduces them to slavery. 

Besides, the slave laws have attached the following penal- 
ties to the following acts of slaves : if more than seven 
slaves are found together in any road, without a white 
person, twenty lashes apiece; for visiting a plantation without 
a written pass, ten lashes; for letting loose a boat from 
where it is made fast, thirty-nine lashes, for the first offense, 
and for the second such slave " shall have cut off from his 
head one ear;" for keeping or carrying a club, thirty-nine 
lashes; for having any article for sale, without a ticket from 
his master, ten lashes; for traveling in any other than the 
most usual road, when going alone to any place, forty lashes; 
for being found in another person's negro quarters, forty 
lashes; for hunting with dogs, in the woods, thirty laslies; 
for being on horseback without the written permission of 
his master, tu>enty-five lashes; for riding or going abroad in 
the night, or riding horses in the daytime, without leave, a 
slave may be whipped, cropped, or branded on the cheek 
with the letter R, or otherwise punished, not extending to life, 
or so as not to render him unfit for labor. Laws similar to 
these exist throughout the slave code. Extracts to fill a 
volume could be made similar to the above. 

In many cases the white man may kill the slave with 
perfect impunity, as w r e have shown; so that the slave has 
little or no protection from the few laws made for that pur- 
pose. For instance, if a female raise her hand against the 
human brute who attempts to violate her chastity, she shall, 
saith the law, suffer death. 

The property of the master is much more sacred than the 
person of the slave. Two laws of Louisiana, passed in 1819, 
prove this. The one attaches a penalty, not exceeding one 
thousand dollars, and imprisonment, not exceeding two 
Tears, to the crime of " cutting or breaking any iron chain or 



220 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

collar" which any master may have used to prevent the 
running away of the slave. The other law inflicts a penalty, 
"not exceeding five hundred dollars," to "willfully cutting 
out the tongue, putting out the eye, cruelly burning, or 
depriving any slave of any limb." These laws reveal the 
heart of the slave system ; while it shows the relative pro- 
tection afforded to the person of the slave, compared to the 
property of the master. He who cuts out the tongue, tears 
out the eyes, shoots off the arms, or burns off the feet of a 
slave, over a slow fire, can not legally be fined more than 
five hundred dollars. But if he should, in pity, loose a 
chain from his galled neck, he may be fined in one thousand 
dollar's, and imprisoned for two years ; and this, too, not for 
stealing the slave, or enticing or advising him to leave his 
master, but merely to relieve, in some degree, the misery of 
the slave! 

Take the following illustrations of the indifference to the 
torments of slaves, compared with zeal to compensate the 
master if the slave is lessened in value by the injury in- 
flicted by another. The first is a law of South Carolina, 
which provides that if a slave engaged in his owner's service 
be attacked by a person, "not having sufficient cause for so 
doing," and if the slave shall be maimed or disabled by him, 
so that the owner suffers loss from the inability of the slave 
to labor, the person maiming the slave shall pay for his lost 
time, and the charges for the cure of the slave. There the 
maimed slave, crippled or otherwise injured, is passed over 
in silence, and the act toward him is no criminal act; but the 
pecuniary loss of the master is provided for, with no pro- 
vision to remunerate the cruelly-treated slave. (See 2 Bre- 
nard's Digest, 231, 2.) 

A similar law exists in Louisiana, which contains an addi- 
tional provision for the benefit of the master. It ordains that 
"if the maimed and disabled slave be forever rendered 
unable to work," the person maiming him shall pay the 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 221 

master the appraised value of the slave before the injury, 
and shall also take the slave and maintain him durinsf life. 
Thus the slave is put into the hands of his tormentor ! 
What else than cruel treatment can be expected during life 
for the maimed slave? The following judicial decision will 
illustrate this point. It is in the case of Jourdon vs. Pat- 
ton, (5 Martin's Louisiana Reports, p. 615 ; Wheeler, pp. 
249, 250.) A slave of the plaintiff had been deprived of 
his only eye, and thus rendered useless, on account of which 
the defendant is required by the court to pay the full value 
of the slave. The case, by appeal, went up to the Supreme 
Court. Judge Mathews, in his decision, said, that "when 
the defendant had paid the sum decreed, the slave ought to 
be placed in his possession," adding, that " the judgment 
making full compensation to the owner operates change of 
property." He then adds : " The principle of humanity 
which would lead us to suppose that the mistress whom he 
had lone: served, would treat her miserable blind slave with 
more kindness than the defendant to whom the judgment 
ought to transfer him, can not be taken into considera- 
tion, in deciding this case." The full compensation to the 
mistress for the loss of the services of her slave is worthy 
of all consideration; but the condition of the slave during 
life, blind and helpless, is worthy of no consideration! 

Before we proceed further, we adduce a decision or two 
to show, that the slave has little protection from law. The 
following is the decision of the Supreme Court of South 
Carolina, in the case of the State vs. Cheatwood, (2 Hill's 
Reports, p. 459; see Wheeler, p. 243.) "The criminal 
offense of assault and battery can not, at common law, be 
committed on the person of the slave. For, notwithstanding 
for some purposes a slave is regarded in law as a person, 
yet generally he is a mere chattel personal, and his right of 
personal protection belongs to his master, who can maintain 
an action of trespass for the battery of his slave. There 

19* 



222 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

can, therefore, be no offense against the state for a mere 
beating of the slave, unaccompanied by any circumstances 
of cruelty, as an attempt to kill and murder. The peace of 
the state is not thereby broken ; for a slave is not generally 
regarded as legally capable of being within the peace of t lit- 
state. He is not a citizen, and is not in that charade?' entitlt d 
to her protection." 

In the case of State vs. Mann, 1829, (Devereux's North 
Carolina Reports, p. 263,) the Supreme Court of North 
Carolina decided that a master who shot at a female slave 
and wounded her, because she got loose from him when 
he was flogging her, and started to run from him, had 
violated no law, and could not be indicted. (See Wheeler, 
p. 244.) 

Thus the slave laws give the master a right to flog, wound, 
and beat a slave when he pleases. And it has been decided 
by the highest courts of the slave states generally, that 
assault and battery upon a slave is not indictable as a 
criminal offense. 

2. To show that American slavery has always had a 
uniform character of cruelty inflicted on the slaves, we will 
adduce the testimony of unimpeachable witnesses for more 
than a hundred years. This evidence will be of a general 
character, and principally from slaveholders. 

Mr. Whitfield, in 1739, declares thus, concerning slavery 
in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
Georgia : " Sure I am, it is sinful to use them as bad, nay, 
worse, than if they were brutes ; and whatever particular 
exceptions there may be — as I would charitably hope there 
are some — I fear the generality of you who own negroes 
are liable to such a charge ; not to mention what numbers 
have been given up to the inhuman usage of cruel task- 
masters, who, by their unrelenting scourges, have plowed 
their backs and made long furrows, and at length brought 
them to their grave. The blood of them, spilt for these 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 223 

many years, in your respective provinces, will ascend up to 
heaven against you." 

John Woolman, a Quaker, in 1757, says: "The correction 
ensuing on their disobedience to overseers, or slothfulness in 
business, is often very severe, and sometimes desperate." 

Mr. Pinckney, of Maryland, in the house of delegates, in 
1789, calls slavery "a speaking picture of abominable op- 
pression." 

The Rev. James O'Kelly, in his "Essay on Negro 
Slavery," published in Philadelphia, in 1780, and who is 
an unexceptionable witness, declares as follows: "In a 
word, slavery is insufferable in its nature. A slave is looked 
on as the property of the master, who is his own legislator, 
as touching the slave, to curse, abuse, drive rigorously, 
sell, change, give, etc. Yes, beat without restriction ; 
mark, brand, and castrate him ; and even when life itself is 
taken away, it is but very little regarded. Perhaps there 
may be a small stir if one is murdered, but it is nothing but 
a sham inquisition ! His wife and children — if slaves — are 
all salable property, so that the slave can not say that even 
his life is his own. They see their wives and children in 
suffering circumstances, but have no way to relieve them ! 
They see their bleeding backs, but dare not say, 'Why is 
this abuse?' They are torn from each other to satisfy 
debts, and to be parted among the favored legatees. This 
is tolerated by the sons of liberty, who risked their lives to 
deliver themselves from political bondage." (Pp. 7, 8.) 
Again, p. 9, our witness says : " These poor outcasts of men 
have no kind law to protect them from abuse of every kind, 
or to allow them some small pittance for a life of hard 
labor. Do not call a few rags and coarse bread, hire. 
Yea, life itself is not protected as it should be. A white 
man's character is regarded more than the life of a slave ! 
This is but a very short narrative of the miserable conse- 
quences of slavery." 



224 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

Mr. Rice, in the Convention of Kentucky, in 1790, said: 
"The master may, and often does, inflict upon him all the 
severity of punishment the human body is capable of 
bearing." 

President Edwards, the younger, in a sermon preached 
in 1791, before "The Connecticut Society for the Promotion 
of Freedom, and for the Relief of Persons unlawfully 
holden in Bondage," declares as follows, p. 6, fourth edi- 
tion : " They are constantly under the watchful eye of 
overseers and negro-drivers, more tyrannical and cruel 
than even their masters themselves. From these drivers, 
for every imagined, as well as real neglect or want of exer- 
tion, they receive the lash, the smack of which is all day 
long in the ears of those who are on the plantation or in 
the vicinity; and it is used with such dexterity and sever- 
ity, as not only to lacerate the skin, but to tear out small 
portions of the flesh at almost every stroke. This is the 
general treatment of the slaves. But man)' individuals suffer 
still more severely. Many are knocked down ; some have 
their eyes beaten out ; some have an arm or a leg broken 
or chopped off; and many, for a small, or for no crime at 
all, have been beaten to death, merely to gratify the fury 
of an enraged master or overseer." 

Major Stoddard, who took possession of Louisiana in be- 
half of the United States, in 1804, in his sketches of Lou- 
isiana, p. 332, says: "The feelings of humanity are out- 
raged — the most odious tyranny is exercised in a land of 
freedom, and hunger and nakedness prevail amidst plenty. 
Cruel and even unusual punishments are daily inflicted on 
these wretched creatures, enfeebled with labor, hunger, and 
the lash. The scenes of misery and distress constantly 
witnessed along the coast of the Delta, the wounds and 
lacerations occasioned by demoralized masters and overseers, 
torture the feelings of the passing stranger, and wring blood 
from the heart." 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 225 

The seventh report of the American Colonization Society, 
1824, declares: "Excepting only the horrible system of the 
West India Islands, we have never heard of slavery in 
any country, ancient or modern, Pagan, Mohammedan, or 
Christian, so terrible in its character as the slavery which 
now exists in these United States." 

The following is the testimony of the Gradual Emanci- 
pation Society of North Carolina : " In the eastern part of 
the state the slaves considerably outnumber the free popu- 
lation. Their situation is there wretched beyond descrip- 
tion. Impoverished by the mismanagement which we have 
already attempted to describe, the master, unable to support 
his own grandeur and maintain his slaves, puts the unfor- 
tunate wretches upon short allowances, scarcely sufficient 
for their sustenance, so that a great part of them go half- 
naked and half-starved much of the time. Generally 
throughout the state, the African is an abused, a mon- 
strously-outraged creature." (See Minutes of the Ameri- 
can Convention, convened in Baltimore, October 25, 1826; 
see, also, Weld's American Slavery, p. 60.) 

The Rev. John Rankin, a native of Tennessee, in 1824 
declared : "Many poor slaves are stripped naked, stretched 
and tied across barrels, or large bags, and tortured with the 
lash daring hours, and even whole days, till their flesh is 
mangled to the very bones. Others are stripped and hung 
up by the arms, their feet are tied together, and the end of 
a heavy piece of timber is put between their legs in order to 
stretch their bodies, and so prepare them for the torturing 
lash — and in this situation they are often whipped till 
their bodies are covered with blood and mangled flesh — and, 
in order to add the greatest keenness to their sufferings, 
their wounds are washed with liquid salt! And some of 
the miserable creatures are permitted to hang in that posi- 
tion till they actually expire; some die under the lash, 
others linger about for a time, and at length die of their 



226 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

wounds, and many survive, and endure again similar tor- 
ture. These bloody scenes are constantly exhibiting in every 
slaveholding country — thousands of whips are every day 
stained in African blood! Even the poor females are not 
permitted to escape these shocking cruelties." (Rankin's 
Letters, p. 52, fifth edition.) 

"The slave, to remain a slave, must be made sensible 
that there is no appeal from his master ; that his person is in 
no instance usurped, but is conferred by the laws of man, 
at least, if not by the law of God. The danger would be 
great, indeed, if the tribunals of justice should be called 
on to graduate the punishment appropriate to every temper 
and dereliction of menial duty. No man can anticipate the 
many and aggravated provocations of the master, which 
the slave would be constantly stimulated, by his own pas- 
sions or the instigation of others, to give; or the conse- 
quent wrath of the master, prompting him to bloody ven- 
geance, upon the turbulent traitor — a vengeance generally 
practiced with impunity, by reason of its privacy." (Judge 
Ruffin, of the Supreme Court of North Carolina; see 
Wheeler, p. 247.) 

"It must be confessed, that, although the treatment of 
our slaves is, in the general, as mild and humane as it can 
be, it must always happen, that there will be found 
hundreds of individuals, who, owing either to the natural 
ferocity of their dispositions, or to the effects of intemper- 
ance, will be guilty of cruelty and barbarity toward their 
slaves, which is almost intolerable, and at which humanity 
revolts." (Speech of Mr. Moore, of Virginia, January 15, 
1832.) 

"Let any man of spirit and feeling, for a moment, cast 
his thoughts over this land of slavery — think of the naked- 
ness of some, the hungry yearnings of others, the flowing 
tears and heaving sighs of parting relations, the wailings 
and woe, the bloody cut of the keen lash, and the frightful 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 227 

scream that rends the very skies — and all this to gratify 
ambition, lust, pride, avarice, vanity, and other depraved 
feelings of the human heart. . . . The worst is not 
generally known. Were all the miseries, the horrors of 
slavery, to burst at once into view, a peal of sevenfold 
thunder could scarce strike greater alarm." (Address of 
B. Swain, of North Carolina, in 1830.) 

"In almost the last conversation I had with you before 
I left Cincinnati, I promised to give you some account of 
some scenes of atrocious cruelty toward slaves, which I 
witnessed while I lived at the south. I almost regret hav- 
ing made the promise, for not only are they so atrocious 
that you will with difficulty believe them, but I also fear 
that they will have the effect of driving you into that aboli- 
tionism, upon the borders of which you have been so long 
hesitating. The people of the north are ignorant of the 
horrors of slavery — of the atrocities which it commits upon 
the unprotected slave 

" I do not know that any thing could be gained by par- 
ticularizing the scenes of horrible barbarity, which fell 
under my observation during my short residence in one 
of the wealthiest, most intelligent, and most moral parts 
of Georgia. Their number and atrocity are such, that I 
am confident they would gain credit with none but aboli- 
tionists. Every thing will be conveyed in the remark, that 
in a state of society calculated to foster the worst passions of 
our nature, the slave derives no protection either from law 
or public opinion, and that all the cruelties which the 
Russians are reported to have acted toward the Poles, 
after their late subjugation, are scenes of every-day oc- 
currence in the southern states. This statement, incredi- 
ble as it may seem, falls short, very far short of the truth." 
(Rev. J. C. Finley's letter to Mr. Mahan.) 

" Slavery is the parent of more suffering than has flowed 
from any one source since the date of its existence. Such 



228 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

sufferings too! — sufferings inconceivable and innumerable — 
unmingled wretchedness, from the ties of nature rudely 
broken and destroyed, the acutest bodily tortures, groans, 
tea?'S, and blood — lying forever in weariness and painfull- 
ness, in watchings, in hunger and in thirst, in cold and 
nakedness. 

" Brethren of the north, be not deceived. These suffer- 
ings still exist; and despite the efforts of their cruel authors 
to hush them down, and confine them within the precincts 
of their own plantations, they will, ever and anon, struggle 
up and reach the ear of humanity." (Mr. Thome's Speech 
at New York, May, 1834.) 

"This system licenses and produces great cruelty. Man- 
gling, imprisonment, starvation, every species of torture, 
may be inflicted upon him, [the slave,] and he has no 
redress. There are now in our whole land two millions of 
human beings, exposed, defenseless, to every insult, and 
every injury short of maiming or death, which their fellow- 
men may choose to inflict. They suffer all that can be 
inflicted by wanton caprice, by grasping avarice, by brutal 
lust, by malignant spite, and by insane anger. Their hap- 
piness is the sport of every whim, and the prey of every 
passion that may, occasionally or habitually, infest the 
master's bosom. If we could calculate the amount of 
woe endured by ill-treated slaves, it would overwhelm every 
compassionate heart — it would move even the obdurate to 
s} T mpathy. There is also a vast sum of suffering inflicted 
upon the slave by humane masters, as a punishment for 
that idleness and misconduct which slavery naturally pro- 
duces. Brutal stripes, and all the varied kinds of personal 
indignities, are not the only species of cruelty which slavery 
licenses." (Synod of Kentucky.) 

"Place yourself in imagination, for a moment, in their 
condition. With heavy galling chains, riveted upon your 
person ; half-naked, half-starved; your back lacerated with 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 229 

the 'knotted whip;' traveling to a region where your 
condition through time will be second only to the wretched 
creatures in hell. This depicting is not visionary. Would 
to God that it was !" (Marysville Intelligencer, Tenn., Oc- 
tober 4, 1835.) 

3. We will now present some specimens of whipping and 
flogging, from which it will be seen that the practice con- 
forms to the laws which authorize the practice. 

The acts of assemblies usualty denominate the corrections 
of the slave " corporeal punishment, not extending to life or 
limb ;" or, which is the same, any torture on the body of a 
slave which can be practiced without producing death or 
dismemberment. The punishment of universal prevalence 
is whipping, which consists of " lashes on the bare back, 
well laid on." The lashes are inflicted with a cow- skin, 
cart-whip, or any such instrument. A cloud of witnesses 
can be adduced to prove that the slaves are whipped with 
such inhuman severity as to lacerate and mangle the flesh 
in a most shocking manner, leaving permanent scars and 
ridges. 

The advertisements describing the scars on their bodies, 
made by the whip, abound in all the southern papers. Out 
of twenty-five advertisements, now before us, taken from 
the southern papers — six of them in 1837, and nineteen m 
1838 — we have specimens of the effect of the whip. Out 
of these twenty-five, we select the expressions of only 
a few, that the reader may have the very words of the 
slaveholders themselves. "Martha, seventeen or eighteen 
years of age, has numerous scars of the whip on her back. 
" Siby, very much scarred about the neck and ears by ivhip- 
ping" "A mulatto boy, having large marks of the whip 
on his shoulders and other parts of his body." "Tom is 
much marked with the whip." "His back shows lasting 
impressions of the whip, and leaves no doubt of his being a 
slave." These are mere sa?nples of thousands of similar 

20 



230 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

ones showing the commonness of inhuman whippings in 
the slave states. Such is the testimony of slaveholders 
themselves, voluntarily certifying to the outrages which their 
own hands have committed upon defenseless and innocent 
men and women. When they thus testify against them- 
selves, they are under no temptation to exaggerate. And 
this is so common in the south that it attracts no attention. 

"The great mass of the slaves are under drivers and 
overseers. I never saw an overseer without a whip ; the 
whip usually carried is a short loaded stock, with a heavy 
lash from five to six feet long. When they whip a slave 
they make him pull off his shirt, if he has one, then make 
him lie down on his face, and taking their stand at the 
length of the lash, they inflict the punishment. Whippings 
are so universal that a negro that has not been whipped is 
talked of in all the region as a wonder. By whipping I do 
not mean a few lashes across the shoulders, but a set 
flogging, and generally lying down. 

"On sugar plantations generally, and on some cotton 
plantations, they have negro-drivers, who are in such a 
degree responsible for their gang, that if they are at fault, 
the driver is whipped. The result is, the gang are con- 
stantly driven by him to the extent of the influence of the 
lash ; and it is uniformly the case that gangs dread a negro- 
driver more than a white overseer. 

"I spent a winter on widow Calvert's plantation, near 
Rodney, Mississippi, but was not in a situation to see extra- 
ordinary punishments. Bellows, the overseer, for a trifling 
offense, took one of the slaves, stripped him, and with a 
piece of burning wood applied to his posteriors, burned him 
cruelly ; while the poor wretch screamed in the greatest 
agony. The principal preparation for punishment that Bel- 
lows had, was single handcuffs, made of iron, with chains, 
by which the offender could be chained to four stakes on the 
ground. These are very common in all the lower country. 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 231 

I noticed one slave on widow Calvert's plantation, who was 
whipped from twenty-five to fifty lashes every fortnight 
during the whole winter. The expression 'whipped to 
death,' as applied to slaves, is common at the south. 

" Several years ago I was going below New Orleans, in 
what is called the Plaquemine country, and a planter sent 
down in my boat a runaway he had found in New Orleans, 
to his plantation at Orange Five Points. As we came near 
the Points he told me, with deep feeling, that he expected 
to be Avhipped almost to death : pointing to a grave-yard, 
he said, ' There lie five who were whipped to death.' 
Overseers generally keep some of the women on the planta- 
tion; I scarce know an exception to this. Indeed, their 
intercourse with them is very promiscuous ; they show them 
not much, if an} T , favor. Masters frequently follow the 
example of their overseers in this thing." (George W. 
Westgate, who lived several years in the south-western 
states.) 

" One slave, who was under my care, was whipped, I 
think one hundred lashes, for getting a small handful of 
wood from his master's yard without leave. I heard an 
overseer boasting to his master that he gave one of the 
boys seventy lashes, for not doing a job of work just as he 
thought it ought to be done. The owner of the slave 
appeared to be pleased that the overseer had been so faith- 
ful. The apology they make for whipping so cruelly is, 
that it is to frighten the rest of the gang. The masters sav, 
that what we call an ordinary flogging will not subdue the 
slaves ; hence, the most cruel and barbarous scourgings ever 
witnessed by man are daily and hourly inflicted upon the 
naked bodies of these miserable bondmen ; not by masters 
and negro-drivers only, but by the constables in the com- 
mon markets and jailers in their yards. 

" It is very common for masters to say to the overseers or 
drivers, ' Put it on to them,' ' Don't spare that fellow,' ' Give 



232 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

that scoundrel one hundred lashes,' etc. Whipping the 
women when in delicate circumstances, as they sometimes 
do, without any regard to their entreaties or the entreaties of 
their nearest friends, is truly barbarous. If negroes could 
testify, they would tell you of instances of women being 
whipped till they have miscarried at the whipping-post. 
I heard of such things at the south ; they are undoubtedly 
facts. Children are whipped unmercifully for the smallest 
offenses, and that before their mothers. A large proportion 
of the blacks have their shoulders, backs, and arms all 
scarred up, and not a few of them have had their heads 
laid open with clubs, stones, and brickbats, and with the 
but-end of whips and canes. Some have had their jaws 
broken, others their teeth knocked in or out ; while others 
have had their ears cropped and the sides of their cheeks 
gashed out. Some of the poor creatures have lost the sight 
of one of their eyes by the careless blows of the whipper, 
or by some other violence. 

" But punishing slaves as above described, is not the only 
mode of torture. Some tie them up in a very uneasy pos- 
ture, where they must stand all night, and they will then 
work them hard all day ; that is, work them hard all day, 
and torment them all night. Others punish by fastening 
them down on a log, or something else, and strike them on 
the bare skin with a broad paddle full of holes. This 
breaks the skin, I should presume, at every hole where it 
comes in contact with it. Others, when other modes of 
punishment will not subdue them, cat-haul them; that is, 
take a cat by the nape of the neck and tail, or by the hind 
legs, and drag the claws across the back till satisfied. 
This kind of punishment poisons the flesh much worse than 
the whip, and is more dreaded by the slave. Some are 
branded by a hot iron, others have their flesh cut out in 
large gashes, to mark them. Some who are prone to 
run away, have iron fetters riveted around their ankles, 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 233 

sometimes they are put only on one foot, and are dragged 
on the ground. Others have on large iron collars or yokes 
upon their necks, or clogs riveted upon their wrists or 
ankles. Some have bells put upon them, hung upon a sort 
of frame to an iron collar. Many, when sick, are suspected 
by their masters of feigning sickness, and are therefore 
whipped out to work after disease has got fast hold of 
them. When the masters learn that they are really sick, 
they are in many instances left alone in their cabins during 
work hours ; not a few of the slaves are left to die without 
having one friend to wipe off the sweat of death. When 
the slaves are sick, the masters do not, as a general thing, 
employ physicians, but ' doctor ' them themselves ; and 
their mode of practice, in almost all cases, is to bleed and 
give salts." (Horace Moulton.) 

"A highly-intelligent slave, who panted after freedom 
with ceaseless longings, made many attempts to get posses- 
sion of himself. For every offense he w T as punished with 
extreme severity. At one time he was tied up by his hands 
to a tree, and whipped till his back was one gore of blood. 
To this terrible infliction he was subjected at intervals for 
several weeks, and kept heavily ironed while at his work. 
His master one day accused him of a fault, in the usual 
terms dictated by passion and arbitrary power; the man 
protested his innocence, but was not credited. He again 
repelled the charge with honest indignation. His master's 
temper rose almost to frenzy ; and seizing a fork, he made a 
deadly plunge at the breast of his slave. The man being- 
far his superior in strength, caught his arm, and dashed the 
weapon on the floor. His master grasped at his throat, but 
the slave disengaged himself, and rushed from the apart- 
ment. Having made his escape, he fled to the woods ; and 
after wandering about for many months, living on roots and 
berries, and enduring every hardship, he was arrested and 
committed to jail. Here he lay for a considerable time. 

20* 



234 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

allowed scarcely food enough to sustain life, whipped in the 
most shocking manner, and confined in a cell so loathsome, 
that when his master visited him, he said the stench was 
enough to knock a man down. The filth had never I 
removed from the apartment since the poor creature had 
been immured in it. Although a black man, such had 
been the effect of starvation and suffering, that his master 
declared he hardly recognized him, his complexion was so 
yellow, and his hair, naturally thick and black, had become 
red and scanty — an infallible sign of long-continued living 
on bad and insufficient food. Stripes, imprisonment, and 
the gnawings of hunger, had broken his lofty spirit for ;i 
season; and, to use his master's own exulting expression, 
he was 'as humble as a dog.' After a time he made 
another attempt to escape, and was absent so long, that a 
reward was offered for him, dead or alive. He eluded 
every attempt to take him, and his master, despairing of 
ever getting him again, offered to pardon him it' he would 
return home. It is always understood that such intelligence 
will reach the runaway; and accordingly, at the entreaties 
of his wife and mother, the fugitive once more consented to 
return to his bitter bondage. I believe this was the last 
effort to obtain his liberty. His heart became touched with 
the power of the Gospel ; and the spirit which no inflictions 
could sudue, bowed at the cross of Jesus, and with the 
language on his lips, 'The cup that my Father hath given 
me, shall I not drink it?' submitted to the yoke of the 
oppressor, and wore his chains in unmurmuring patience till 
death released him. The master who perpetrated these 
wrongs upon his slave, was one of the most influential and 
honored citizens of South Carolina, and to his equals was 
bland, and courteous, and benevolent even to a proverb." 
(Sarah M. Grimke.) 

4. The slaves are frequently tortured in a cruel manner 
with iron collars, chains,- fetters, handcuffs, and the like. 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 235 

Out of twenty-eight advertisements before us, published 
by slaveholders and signed by their names, in the southern 
papers, we find the following expressions : " Jim had a large 
lock chain around his neck ;" " Squire had a chain, locked 
with a house lock, around his neck ;" " Caroline had on a col- 
lar with one prong turned down ;" " Betsy had an iron bar on 
her right leg;" "Amos had a chain attached to one of his 
legs;" " Patrick is handcuffed ;" "Manuel is much marked 
with irons;" "Fanny had an iron band about her neck;" 
"Had on a large neck-iron, with a huge pair of horns, and 
a large bar or band of iron on his left leg;" "Had round 
his neck a chain dog-collar;" "Thomas has a ring of iron 
on his left foot; also Grisee, his wife, having a ring and 
chain on the left leg;" "Said boy was ironed when he left;" 
"Jim had on, when he escaped, a pair of chain handcuffs;" 
"John has a clog of iron on his right foot, which will weigh 
four or five pounds;" "Myra has several marks of lashing, 
and has irons on her feet." (See Weld's American Slavery, 
pp. 12-11.) 

These are mere specimens of the instruments of torture 
employed to confine and punish the slaves. The list of the 
whole, could it be made out, would be a long one indeed, 
and would approach in character the instruments of torture 
employed by the inquisitors themselves. 

5. The slaves carry with them the marks of torture on 
their bodies, such as these instruments of torture inflict, 
consisting of brandings, maimings, and a great variety of 
other scars. 

The following are such expressions as are commonly 
contained in the advertisements which abound in southern 
papers, announcing runaways. Out of one hundred and 
forty -three advertisements now before us, we select the 
following descriptive phrases, which show that the scars 
were inflicted by deliberate cruelty. While many of the 
marks usually mentioned in these notices may be the result 



236 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

of accident, this will not apply to the following : " Pompey, 
forty years old; he is branded on the left jaw;" "Mary 
has a small scar over her eye, a good many teeth missing ; 
the letter A is branded on her cheek and forehead ;" " Ham- 
bleton limps on his left foot, where he was shot a few weeks 
ago while a runaway;" "Josiah has his back very much 
scarred by the whip, and branded on the thigh and hips in 
three or four places thus, (J. M.;) the rim of his left ear 
has been bit or cut off;" "Jim Blake has a piece cut out of 
each ear;" "Fountain has holes in his ears, a scar on the 
right side of his forehead ; has been shot in the hind parts 
of his legs; is marked on the back with the whip ;" "John, 
left ear cropped;" "Edmund has a scar on his right temple 
and under his right eye, and holes in both ears;" "Jerry 
has a small piece cut out of the top of each ear." (See 
Weld's American Slavery, pp. 77-93.) 

Cropping or cutting pieces out of the ears, seems to be a 
favorite mode of identifying the slaves. The knocking out 
of one or more front teeth is also resorted to, as this is an 
easily- ascertained descriptive mark. And then the brand- 
ings, and other modes of leaving the lasting and distinctive 
impress of correction, seem to be as necessary to slave- 
holders, as branding and cropping of various animals are 
by their owners. Of course, Avhipping seems always to 
have been high in favor with the slaveholders, so that what- 
ever marks may be resorted to, this must always form a 
part. 

6. As we have seen already, the master's proxy is very 
often intrusted with all the power which the laws of slavery 
confer on the master. The overseer, and his substitute, the 
driver, are the executioners of the slave laws. 

The office of overseer is among the last which an enlight- 
ened and conscientious man would choose. The overseer is 
mostly notable for his licentiousness and severity. The lash 
and other instruments of correction are put into his hands. 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 237 

And then the driver, who is more dreaded than the over- 
seer himself for his cruelties, is the agent of the overseer 
to execute his will. The Rev. T. S. Clay, of Georgia, ad- 
vises that " all disputes should first be brought to the driver, 
and if he can not restore peace, let the master or overseer 
interfere." The very name of driver is significant, and 
could not be applied to those sub-agents, unless they were 
clothed with authority to make their commands respected. 

And if mercy would prevent the master from either 
inflicting these cruel punishments himself, or of delegating 
them to the overseer — and he has recourse to the very com- 
mon mode of disposing of refractory slaves, namely, to sell 
them to the slave-dealer — yet this does not relieve him 
from cruelty. In selling his slaves into merciless hands, he 
must give an account to God for the barbarities inflicted on 
them. The slave-dealers are notorious for cruelty. The 
following is a description of one, given by the Hon. James 
K. Paulding, in 1817, in his Letters from the South. That 
he since, to please southern readers, and give circulation to 
his book, erased this from his next edition, does not invalid- 
ate his testimony ; and if it did, there are a thousand wit- 
nesses who can testify to the same amount: 

" At one of the taverns along the road we were set down 
in the same room with an elderly man and a youth, who 
seemed to be well acquainted with him, for they conversed 
familiarly and with true republican independence — for they 
did not mind who heard them. From the tenor of his 
conversation I was induced to look particularly at the elder. 
He was telling the youth something like the following 
detested tale. He was going, it seems, to Richmond, to 
inquire about a draft for seven thousand dollars, which he 
had sent by mail, but which, not having been acknowledged 
by his correspondent, he was afraid had been stolen, and 
the money received by the thief. ' I should not like to lose 
it,' said he, 'for I worked hard for it, and sold many a poor 



238 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY". 

d 1 of a black to Carolina and Georgia, to scrape it 

together.' He then went on to tell many a perfidious tale. 
All along the road, it seems, he made it his business to 
inquire where lived a man who might be tempted to become 
a party in this accursed traffic, and when he had got some 
half dozen of these poor creatures, he tied their hands behind 
their backs, and drove them three or four hundred miles or 
more, bareheaded and half naked, through the burning 
southern sun. Fearful that even southern humanity would 
revolt at such an exhibition of human misery and human 
barbarity, he gave out that they were runaway slaves he 
was carrying home to their masters. On one occasion a 
poor black woman exposed this fallacy, and told the story 
of her being kidnapped, and when he got her into a wood 
out of hearing, he beat her, to use his own expression, 'till 
her back was white.' It seems he married all the men and 
women he bought himself, because they would sell better 
for being man and wife! 'But,' said the youth, 'were you 
not afraid, in traveling through the wild country, and sleep- 
ing in lone houses, these slaves would rise and kill you?' 
'To be sure I was,' said the other; 'but I always fastened 
my door, put a chair on a table before it, so that it might 
wake me in falling, and slept with a loaded pistol in each 
hand. It was a bad life, and I left it off as soon as I could 
live without it ; for many is the time I have separated wives 
from husbands, and husbands from wives, and parents from 
children, but then I made amends by marrying them again 
as soon as I had a chance ; that is to say, I made them call 
each other man and wife, and sleep together, which is quite 
enough for negroes. I made one bad purchase, though,' 
continued he. 'I bought a young mulatto girl, a lively 
creature, a great bargain. She had been the favorite of 
her master, who had lately married. The difficulty was to 
get her to go, for the poor creature loved her master. 
However, I swore most bitterly I was only going to take 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 239 

her to her mother's at , and she went with me, thouo-h 

she seemed to doubt me very much. But when she discov- 
ered, at last, that we were out of the state, I thought she 
would go mad, and, in fact, the next night she drowned 
herself in the river close by. I lost a good five hundred 
dollars by this foolish trick.' " (Vol i, p. 121.) 

7. The cruel treatment of slaves leads to acts of inhu- 
manity, as will be manifest by a few facts. 

The shocking indifference manifested at the death of 
slaves as human beings, compared with the grief at their 
loss as property, is a strong proof of inhumanity. The 
following, from the Charleston (South Carolina) Patriot, 
will exemplify this remark : " The loss of property has 
been immense, not only on South Santee, but also on this 
river. Mr. Shelbrood has lost forty-six negroes — the ma- 
jority lost being the primest hands he had : bricklayers, 
carpenters, blacksmiths, and coopers. Mrs. Elias Harry 
has lost thirty-two negroes, the best part of her primest 
negroes on her plantation." 

A late prospectus of the South Carolina Medical College, 
located in Charleston, reads thus : " No place in the United 
States offers as great opportunities for the acquisition of 
medical knowledge, subjects being obtained from among the 
colored population in sufficient number for every purpose, 
and proper dissections carried on without offending any indi- 
viduals in the community." 

In the Charleston (South Carolina) Mercury, of October 
12, 1838, Dr. Stillman, setting forth the merits of a medical 
infirmary under his supervision, in Charleston, advertises 
thus : 

" To Planters and Others. — Wanted, fifty negroes. Any 
person having sick negroes, considered incurable by their 
respective physicians, and wishing to dispose of them, Dr. 
Stillwell will pay cash for negroes affected with scrofula or 
king's evil, confirmed hypochondriacism, apoplexy, diseases 



240 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

of the liver, kidneys, spleen, stomach, and intestines, blad- 
der and its appendages, diarrhea, dysentery," etc. 

Here the Doctor proposes to buy up the damaged negroes 
given over as incurable. And this is a standing adver- 
tisement in a popular paper, which shows the sentiment 
and feeling of the public in reference to the unhappy 
slaves. 

Just read the two following advertisements by females, 
by which it appears that the inhuman current of sentiment 
and feeling growing out of slavery produces its legitimate 
results every-where. The first is from the Huntsville (Ala- 
bama) Democrat, of June 18, 1838: 

" Ten Dollars Reward. — Ran away from the subscriber, 
a negro woman named Sally, about twenty- one years of 
age, taking along her two children — one three years, and 
the other seven months old. These negroes were pur- 
chased by me at the sale of George Mason's negroes, and 
left a few days after. Any person delivering them to the 
jailer in Huntsville, or to me, at my plantation, five miles 
above Triana, on the Tennessee river, shall receive the 
above reward. Charity Cooper." 

The other is from the Mississippian, of May 13, 1838: 

" Ten Dollars Reward. — Ran away from the subscriber, 
a man named Aaron, yellow complexion, blue eyes, etc. 
I have no doubt he is lurking about Jackson and its vicinity ; 
probably harbored by some of the negroes sold as the 
property of my late husband — Harry Long, deceased. 
Some of them are about Richland, in Madison county. 
I will give the above reward when brought to me, about 
six miles north-west of Jackson, or put in jail, so that I 
can get Mm. Lucy Long." 

Read also the following advertisement from the Charles- 
ton (South Carolina) Mercury: 

"Negroes for Sale. — A girl about twenty years of age — 
raised in Virginia — and her two female children — one four 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 241 

and the other two years old ; is remarkably strong and 
healthy, never having had a day's sickness, with the excep- 
tion of the small-pox, in her life. The children are fine 
and healthy. She is very prolific in her generating qualities, 
and affords a rare opportunity to any person who wishes 
to raise a family of strong and healthy servants for their 
own use. Any person wishing to purchase will please 
leave their address at the Mercury office." 

Thus the public sentiment seems clearly to be formed so 
as to have little repugnance to such revolting advertise- 
ments as those before quoted, which are mere specimens of 
thousands of others of similar character. The higher and 
most honorable classes of society in the south are deeply 
imbued with this atrocious feeling. The Hon. John Ran- 
dolph, in one of his Congressional speeches, asks: "But 
where are the trophies of avarice ? The handcuff", the 
manacle, the blood-stained cow-hide ! What man is worse 
received in society for being a hard master ? Who denies 
the hand of a sister Or daughter to such monsters?" The 
Hon. Whitemarsh B. Seabrook, of South Carolina, in 1834, 
says, "I consider imprisonment in the stocks at night, with 
or without hard labor in the day, as a powerful auxiliary in 
the cause of good government. To the correctness of this 
opinion many can bear testimony. Experience has con- 
vinced me that there is no punishment to which the slave 
looks with more horror" 

8. From the foregoing we may justly infer, that the 
system of slavery is sinful, because it permits and au- 
thorizes such cruelties as are detailed above. 

The moral evils, or rather actual sins, flowing from man's 
taking the place of God, are fully apparent in the slave 
system, as it is established by law, supported by judicial 
decisions, and especially as actually practiced in the slave 
states. 

Hear the Rev. T. S. Clay, of Bryan county, Georgia, in 

21 



242 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

his "Detail for the Moral Improvement of Negroes on 
Plantations." On "crimes and punishments" he says: 

" There are several prevailing errors connected with crime 
and punishment in the present system of plantation dis- 
cipline. And first, there exists a wrong scale of crime. 
Offenses against the master are more severely punished 
than violations of the law of God, or faults which affect the 
slave's personal character or good. As examples, we may 
notice that running away is more severely punished than 
adultery, and idleness than Sabbath-breaking, and swearing 
and stealing from the master than defrauding a fellow-slave. 

"Under the influence of such a code as this, it can not 
be a matter of surprise that the negro forms false estimates 
of the comparative criminality of actions. And further, 
the general mode of inflicting punishments tends to con- 
found those distinctions. The whip is the general instru- 
ment of correction; and so long as the negro is whipped 
without discrimination for the neglect of work, for stealing, 
lying, Sabbath-breaking, and swearing, he will very nat- 
urally class them all together, as belonging to the same 
grade of guilt. In a good code of discipline, the punish- 
ment will always be suited to the nature and enormity of 
the crime ; and it is highly important that this measure 
should be well adjusted, for the common people will judge 
of the criminality of the act by the nature and extent of 
the punishment. 

"x\nother error is obvious in the defective presentation of 
the design of punishment. The negro is seldom taught to 
feel that he is punished for breaking God's law. He only 
knows his master as lawgiver and executioner ; and the sole 
object of punishment held up to his view is to make him a 
more obedient and profitable slave. He oftener hears that 
he shall be punished if he steals than if he breaks the 
Sabbath or swears ; and thus he sees the very threatening 
of God brought to bear upon his master's interests. It is 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 243 

very manifest to him that his own good is very far from 
forming the primary reason for his chastisement. His mas- 
ter's interests are to be secured at all events. God's claims 
are secondary, or enforced merely for the purpose of 
advancing those of his owner. His own benefit is the 
residuum after this double distillation of moral motive — a 
mere accident." 

According to the benevolent Mr. Clay, as " God's claims 
are secondary," and those of the master supreme, the 
divine law is superseded, and offenses against the master are 
more severely punished than violations of the law of God. 

Indeed, the testimony of Mr. Clay supports the fact, 
that the master stands to the slave in the place of the civil 
law as well as the divine. " The fear of corporeal punish- 
ment is the only motive peculiar to a slave system." So 
says Mr. Clay in the following extract: 

" The civil offenses of negroes are too often punished on 
the plantation instead of being prosecuted according to 
law. They should be taught that they are subject to the 
laws of the state, both when they violate those laws and 
when they are violated in their person. The fear of cor- 
poreal punishment is the only motive peculiar to a system 
of slavery. But if we desire to promote right conduct for 
its moral not pecuniary advantage, moral motives must be 
exhibited; for the character of an action partakes prima- 
rily of the nature of its motive. Should the fear of pun- 
ishment alone deter the slave from stealing, he would be 
still destitute of the principle of honesty — of that which 
constitutes a moral trait, in his forbearance to take what 
belongs to another." 

In short, moral motives have, it seems, no weight with 
the slaves — the luhip only, and the other modes of correc- 
tion, are the great moving agencies to be employed in cor- 
recting slaves. And how can the masters, in general, be 
influenced by better motives than the slaves themselves 



244 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

are? Indeed, if such a system as this be not sinful, then 
sin must have long since been banished from our world. 

9. But there are several objections raised against the ex- 
istence or extent of the alleged cruelties and inhumanity 
of slavery. Some of these it will be proper to notice. 

It is said "that such cruelties are incredible." We 
maintain the contrary, because slavery regards slaves as 
property and not as men. Hence, they are treated as 
property, and not as human beings. 

The following extracts, from the laws of slave states, are 
proofs sufficient: 

"The slave is entirely subject to the will of his mas- 
ter." (Louisiana Civil Code, art. 273.) 

"Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed, and ad- 
judged in law to be chattels personal, in the hands of their 
owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators, 
and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and purposes 
whatsoever." (Laws of South Carolina, 2 Brev. Dig., 229 ; 
Prince's Digest, 446, etc.) 

Indeed, genuine slaveholders regard their slaves as mere 
working animals or merchandise. Their laws, usages, and 
common phraseology establish this. The same terms are 
applied to slaves that are used in reference to cattle. They 
are, as previously stated, called "stock." When their chil- 
dren are spoken of prospectively, they are called "increase." 
The female slaves that are mothers are called "breeders," 
till they are past child-bearing. The "drivers" compel the 
labor. They are included in the same advertisements with 
any other vendible articles. They are bought, and sold, and 
separated like cattle. They are left by inheritance, and 
pecuniary value attached to them like real estate, stock, and 
any other kind of property. Hence, as Col. Dayton, of 
South Carolina, said in Congress, "the northerner looks 
upon a band of negroes as upon so many men, but the 
planter or southerner views them in a very different light." 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 245 

Or, as Mr. Sumers, of Virginia, said, in 1832: "When, in 
the sublime lessons of Christianity, he [the slaveholder] is 
taught to ' do unto others as he would have others do unto 
him,' he never dreams that the degraded negro is within 
the pale of that holy canon." Or, in the language of Jef- 
ferson in 1814, who says of slaveholders, "Nursed and 
educated in the daily habit of seeing the degraded condi- 
tion, both bodily and mental, of these unfortunate beings, 
few minds have yet doubted but that they were as legiti- 
mate subjects of property as their horses or cattle." 

Indeed, the slaves are often worse treated than if they 
were beasts. And this can be easily shown from innu- 
merable acts exhibited toward the slaves from their over- 
seers and masters. 

If it be said " that public opinion is a counteraction to 
these cruelties," we reply, It was public opinion that made 
the slaves. For the laws are no more than public opinion 
in legal forms. Public opinion continually robs the slaves, 
by declaring that those who robbed their mothers may also 
rob them and their children. Public opinion permits and 
authorizes their masters to flog, wound, and beat them when 
they please. The Supreme Court of South Carolina de- 
cided that the "criminal offense of assault and battery can 
not, at common law, be committed on the person of a 
slave." This public opinion, embodied in law, deprives 
them of trial by jury; interferes with their consciences, 
by preventing them from worshiping God, unless their op- 
pressors are present; it robs them of their character, by 
branding them as liars, and denying them their oath in law ; 
it disregards their modesty, by leaving it with their masters 
to clothe or let them go naked, as he pleases. This public 
opinion deprives the slaves of their liberty, the marriage 
relations, parental authority, and filial obligations. Such is 
the protection which public opinion, in the form of law, 
furnishes to the slaves. 

21* 



246 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

10. The denial of these cruelties by some southern and 
northern men, too, by no means invalidates the truth of the 
foregoing statements and testimonies. Dr. Fuller, in his 
answer to Wayland, feebly wards off, as follows, the charge 
of cruelty brought against slaveholders : 

" In your last letter there is a great deal of truth and 
solemn exhortation, which I hope may do good. It applies, 
however, entirely to the slave laws, and to abuses not to be 
defended. In some matters you are grossly misinformed. 
At least I never heard of the atrocities you mention ; such, 
for example, as the prohibition of marriage, and the defense 
of profligacy in the abuse of female slaves for purposes of 
convenience and pecuniary advantage." (Letters to Way- 
land, p. 221.) 

Dr. Fuller overlooks, in the above extract, the leading 
features of slavery, which are supported by the slave laws ; 
and the workings of slavery, as authorized by law, and 
maintained by judicial proceedings, are by no means abuses 
of slavery, but, on the other hand, its natural and legitimate 
workings. All the black catalogue of unjust treatment, 
nay, of cruel usage, mentioned in this chapter, and through- 
out the chapters of these volumes, is nothing else than the 
true manifestations of slavery in its legitimate characteristics. 
Who does not know that marriage and all the holy relations 
of marriage, are unknown to the slave code and the practice 
of slavery ? Just while we are penning this paragraph, the 
news has reached us of the case of Edmondson's two 
daughters, who, by their wicked owner, have been held at 
enormous prices, in consequence of the demand for such 
females in the southern market for the vilest of purposes. 
And the history of slavery has this same accursed abomi- 
nation as one of its great leading topics, ever since slavery 
existed. Slaveholders can never get rid of this charge. 
Its witnesses are legions: its acts are manifest before the 
sun. The polluting amalgamation of slavery has infected 



CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 247 

he whole population of the south ; and its enormities are 
•.carcely exceeded by the abominations of Sodom. 

But Dr. Fuller, as well as the stoutest champions for 
slavery, has evaded the point under discussion. This point 
was American slavery, as authorized by law, sustained by 
court decisions, and practiced under the sanction and pro- 
tection of these laws and these decisions. He seems to 
reject that slavery which law sustains, and forms another 
system founded on "justice and love." He says: 

"With these weapons they [the apostles] did extirpate 
at once, from among Christians, the Roman system of 
slavery — and let me say, too, that with these arms they 
are now contending against the southern abuses of slavery ; 
but slavery itself — softened and so entirely changed by 
Christianity, that the relation between the parties was one 
of justice and love — they not only did not attack, but per- 
mitted, both by their precepts and conduct." (Letters to 
Wayland, p. 214.) 

Now, a slavery guided by justice and love is no slavery 
at all, but a servitude, at the utmost variance with Ameri- 
can slavery. As proof of this, just look at the slavery 
which Dr. Fuller himself endeavors to practice in the midst 
of surrounding slavery. Hear him : 

"In a familiar correspondence like this, I may be par- 
doned for saying, that, during twelve years, I have devoted 
the salary given me, whenever at my disposal, to the spirit- 
ual instruction of the slaves ; and am now doing so. With 
reference to my own servants, their condition is as good as 
I can make it. They are placed under a contract, which 
no instrument of writing could make more sacred. By this 
contract they, on their part, perform not one-half the work 
done by free laborers; and I, on my part, am bound to 
employ a missionary to teach and catechise them and 
their children, to provide them a home, and clothes, and 
provisions, and fuel, and land to plant for themselves, to pay 



248 CRUELTIES OF SLAVERY. 

all medical bills, to guarantee to them all the profits of 
their skill and labor in their own time, to protect them as 
a guardian, and to administer to the wants of the children, 
and of those that are sick, and infirm, and aged." (Letters, 
p. 222.) 

Now, according to slavery, no slave can make a contract, 
nor can he enjoy such privileges as Dr. Fuller, in justice 
and love, no doubt, confers on his servants. His plan is in 
utter hostility to slavery, and would eventuate in its de- 
struction, just as the principles of justice and love would 
destroy slavery. Indeed, Mr. Fuller is scarcely any thing 
else than an antislavery man. Nay, he is a very aboli- 
tionist, in the practical sense of that term ; and were his 
system to be adopted generally, slavery must fall under its 
operation, just because it is founded in justice and love, to 
which slavery is in direct antagonism. We should not be 
surprised to hear that Dr. Fuller is banished from the south, 
as an incendiary, an insurrectionist, and an abolitionist. 

11. It is gratifying to learn, that many in the south, who 
are even slaveholders, and even apologists for it, are never- 
theless compelled, from a sense of justice and Christian 
love, to repudiate some of the leading characteristics of 
slavery, and to inculcate principles in hostility to it. And 
yet there is a strange inconsistency in this ; because these 
very things are not abuses of slavery, as they no doubt 
innocently suppose, but they either form some of its essen- 
tial qualities, or are the inevitable results or fruits of the 
system, and can never be separated from the system of 
which they form essential parts, or are its inevitable conse- 
quences. Cruelty is as truly a part of the slave system as 
love is of Christianity. The moral feelings which led to 
the seizure and sale of Joseph are generally required to 
commence or continue the system of slavery in any country. 



PART IV. 

CONTRARIETY TO THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES 



CHAPTER I. 

SLAVERY CONTRARY TO MANY SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 

Heretofore we showed the sinfulness of slavery from 
the sinful sources in which it originated — from the charac- 
teristics common to it and the African slave-trade. We 
showed, too, that American slavery deprived its subjects of 
their inalienable rights, and that it inflicted on them many 
injuries or wrongs. And that these prove the sinfulness of 
slavery, we have fully shown. We will now proceed to 
show, 

1. That slavery is contrary to many Scriptural prohibi- 
tions. 

2. Contrary to many Scriptural injunctions or commands. 

3. Contrary to Scripture principles and privileges. 

4. It is against the decalogue or moral law. 

5. Slavery vs. the spirit of Christianity. 

1. American slavery is contrary to many Scriptural pro- 
hibitions. 

(1.) And first, the despotism or tyranny of slavery is 
clearly prohibited in Scripture. 

Let us just see the kind and degree of the master's 
power over the slave. According to Roman or civil law, 
" slaves were held, pro nullis; pro mortuis; pro quadruped- 
ibus — as nothing; as dead persons; as beasts.'' (Stroud 
p. 21.) 

A slaveholder is one who possesses an absolute right of 
property in the persons of such as the laws recognize to him 
as slaves. Or, as the laws of Louisiana have it, " A slave 
is one who is in the power of a master, to whom he belongs. 
The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his indus- 
try, and his labor : he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor 
acquire any thing but what must belong to his master." 
(Stroud, p. 22.) The same thing is thus expressed in the 

251 



252 CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 

laws of South Carolina : " Slaves shall be deemed, sold, 
taken, reputed and adjudged in law to be chattels personal, 
in the hands of their owners and possessors, and their 
executors, administrators, and assigns, to all intents, con- 
structions, and purposes whatever." (Stroud, p. 23.) 

Here the absolute despotism of slavery has, by legal 
enactment, the most comprehensive grant of power. Under 
these and similar legal grants and judicial decisions, the 
master has unlimited sway over the persons of the slaves, 
as his subjects to obey his commands. He can sell or give 
them to whomsoever he will; he can determine the kind, 
degree, and time of labor ; he has power to give them such 
food and clothing as he sees fit; he can compel them to 
marry or forbear, and separate them when married, at his 
pleasure ; he can whip, beat, chain, or imprison them, at his 
will ; he can transfer all these powers to his substitute, who 
can exercise them in the same despotic manner. And all 
these branches of power, as well as many others growing 
out of them, may be exercised, without hinderance from the 
law of the land ; nay, the laws guarantee all these powers 
to the slaveholder, and defend him in the exercise of them. 

And, indeed, such are the views entertained by slave- 
holders themselves respecting the character of their power. 

Dr. Fuller says : " My position discloses to me the truth, 
which I will express, in so many words, by saying that 
slavery, absolute and unqualified slavery, is despotism" 
(Letters, p. 153.) 

Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, (Philadelphia edition, 
p. 251,) says: "The whole commerce between master and 
slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, 
the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and 
degrading submission on the other. The parent storms, the 
child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the 
same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives loose to the 
worst of passions ; and thus nursed, educated, and daily 



CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 253 

exercised in tyranny, can not but be stamped with its odious 
peculiarities." 

The late Edwin C. Holland, in a " Refutation of the Cal- 
umnies circulated against the Southern and Western States," 
declares: "It is true, indeed, that all slaveholders have 
laid down non-resistance and the most perfect and uniform 
obedience to their orders as fundamental principles in the 
government of their slaves. This necessarily results from 
the relation in which they stand ; and we might as well 
denounce that government a despotism, that punishes any 
infringement of its laws, as to call that a tyranny which is 
nothing more or less than an authority unavoidably from the 
very character of the connection between master and slave." 
(P. 47 ; see Quarterly Antislavery Magazine, i, 93.) Here 
non-resistance, the most perfect and uniform obedience, are 
necessary to the existence of slavery. 

The Hon. Whitemarsh B. Seabrook in his " Essay on the 
Management of Slaves," p. 4, says: "Every plantation rep- 
resents a little community differing from its chief in color, 
habits, and general character. The members of this com- 
munity are his lawful property. Over them he exercises 
executive, legislative, and judicial powers." (See Anti- 
slavery Magazine, i, 93.) 

That American slaveholders possess a power over their 
slaves which is virtually absolute, none can deny. That 
they, as a whole, desire this power, is proved from the fact 
of their holding and exercising it, and making laws to 
confirm and enlarge it, as well as their furious threats 
against all who denounce the exercise of such power as 
usurpation, outrage, and tyranny. 

Nor do some restraining laws, which in most cases are 
never executed, and in the few cases of execution have no 
general influence, have any force to remove the despotism 
and tyranny of slavery. It is the very nature of such 
despotism as is embraced in slavery, to resist and despise 

22 



254 CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 

all such restraints. Of this there can be given innumerable 
proofs. 

The very words and phrases employed to designate this 
power are full proof that such power will always terminate 
in pure despotism of the most oppressive kind. We notice, 
as examples, the words despot and despotic; tyrant and 
tyranny; arbitrary, etc. Despot signifies, etymologically, 
one who possesses arbitrary power. But as those generally 
who possessed arbitrary power, have exercised it oppres- 
sively, the word now means the capricious, unmerciful, and 
cruel exercise of power. So the word tyrant meant one who 
"possessed arbitrary power ; but now it signifies one who exer- 
cises power to the injury of others. The words tyranny and 
tyrannical follow the same analogy. So does the word arbi- 
trary, which formerly was applied to that which pertains to 
the will of one independently of others ; but as those who 
had no restraint on their wills, in the exercise of power, 
became generally capricious, unreasonable, and oppressive, 
arbitrary power becomes an expressive designation to 
describe unjust and oppressive power. 

The examples of individuals and nations show that such 
power as is comprised in enslaving others has always run into 
cruelty, injustice, and oppression. The cases of nations are 
numerous, such as Babylon, Persia, and nearly all ancient 
nations. But the case of Egypt is most striking. By the 
exercise of despotic power, unrestrained by just laws, the 
Israelites were enslaved. Cases of individuals, without 
number, could be adduced, to establish further the truth we 
maintain. It is, therefore, impossible to vindicate slavery, 
without vindicating every species and every degree of 
tyranny exemplified in the world. (See specimens of this 
in "Slavery As It Is," pp. 118-121.) 

The sentiment in the Declaration of Independence, " that 
all men are by nature free and independent," is in direct 
opposition to the despotism of slavery. It is impossible, 



CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 255 

therefore, to vindicate slavery without condemning the 
political government of our nation. It throws odium on the 
authors of our revolutionary independence, and brands the 
name of Franklin, Washington, Jay, Adams, Hancock, and 
their associates, with the opprobious names of robbers, 
murderers, and rebels. If the despotism of slavery be 
right, then a republican government is wrong ; for if des- 
potical government be lawful over one or ten, it is equally 
lawful over one hundred, one thousand, a million, or ten 
millions. Now, as slavery is incompatible with the prin- 
ciples of free government, or, in other words, with equal 
and just rights, slavery must be morally wrong. 

Indeed, the unlimited despotism of southern slavery 
seems to contemplate the subjugation of the free labor- 
ing population of the non-slaveholding states, to a despot- 
ism as great as that of the southern slaves. Governor 
M'Duffie's message distinctly avows this, in declaring that 
"domestic slavery, in the place of being a political evil, is 
the corner-stone of our republican edifice ;" that "the insti- 
tution of domestic slavery supersedes the necessity of an 
order of nobility." Hence, Mr. M'Dunie contends that the 
non-slaveholding states, in less than a quarter of a century, 
will be compelled to have recourse to slavery, or "take 
refuge from robbery and anarchy, under a military despot- 
ism." Many and powerful influences, within the last few 
years, have been put forth by the leading men in the south, 
in continuing the despotism of slavery, and virtually to 
extend the institution to the laboring classes of the north. 
The various movements in suppressing discussion, interfering 
with the freedom of the press, special legislative acts, and 
resolutions of public meetings, go to show this with great 
clearness ; so that the peculiar despotism of slavery, uneasy 
for its own safety, is zealous and active in promoting its 
despotism where it does not now exist. (See an able 
pamphlet, published in Boston, by the Massachusetts 



256 CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 

Antislaveiy Society, printed by Isaac Knapp, 1836, entitled 
"A full Statement of the Reasons which were in part offered 
to the Committee of the Legislature of Massachusetts," etc., 
pp. 48.) 

Now, despotism, or tyranny in general, and the despotism 
and tyranny of slavery in particular, are expressly forbidden 
in the word of God, and condemned in a great variety of 
ways. We mention the following points, which could be 
fully sustained by quotations from holy Scripture. 

Righteousness and justice is enjoined on all who govern, 
as the rule of conduct, and not the mere will of the ruler. 

God gave express laws for this very purpose in his reve- 
lation to Moses, which are binding on all rulers. And all 
despotic laws are condemned by the enactments of justice 
and righteousness contained in the Mosaic code. 

The despotism of the rich is condemned. 

The despotism of rulers is particularly condemned. 

All arbitrary conduct from man to man is condemned, 
except so far as it is guided by the principles of justice and 
right. 

How true is the following declaration of Cassius M. 
Clay! After enumerating the evils of slavery, he asks: 
" Where all these evils exist, can liberty, constitutional 
liberty, live ? No, indeed, it can not, and has not existed in 
conjunction with slavery." 

(2.) The degradation of slavery is to be deprecated and 
shunned. "If thou canst be free use it rather." 

The sentiment of the civil law in regard to slaves is 
equally true of American slavery, and of slavery in general, 
in all ages and in all countries. (See Stroud, p. 21.) 

Slaves were held, pro nullis; pro mortuis; pro quadru- 
jiedibus — as nothing ; as dead ; as quadrupeds. They had 
no head in the state ; no name, title, or register; they were 
not capable of being injured, nor could they take by pur- 
chase or descent. They had no heirs, and therefore could 



CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 257 

make no will exclusive of what was called their peculium. 
Whatever they acquired was their master's ; they could not 
plead, nor be pleaded for, but were excluded from all civil 
concerns whatever. They could not claim the indulgence 
of absent reipublicce causa; they were not entitled to the 
rights and considerations of matrimony, and therefore had 
no relief in case of adultery ; nor were they proper objects 
of cognation or affinity, but of quasi-cognation. They could 
be sold, transferred, or pawned as goods, or personal estate, 
for goods they were, and as such they were esteemed. 
They might be tortured or punished, at the discretion of 
their lord, or even be put to death by his authority. This 
description is to be taken as applicable to the condition of 
slaves at an early period of the Roman history ; for before 
the fall of the Roman empire several important changes had 
been introduced in favor of the slaves. By the lex Cornelia 
de sicariis, the killing of a slave became punishable. (Dig., 
p. 488; Cooper's Justinian, p. 411.) The jus vital et necis 
claimed by the master was restrained by Claudius, the suc- 
cessor of Caligula. (Ibid.) The emperor Adrian prohibited 
generally-cruel treatment toward slaves, and he banished 
Umbrica, a lady of quality, for five years, quod ex levissimis 
causis suas ancillas atrosissime tractasset. (Cooper's Jus- 
tinian, p. 412.) Antonius Pius applied the lex Cornelia de 
sicariis specifically to the masters of slaves, and the same 
law was strengthened by Severus and by Constantine. 
(Ibid.) Slaves might always induce an investigation by 
flying to the statutes of the princes. (See Stroud, p. 21.) 
Now, American slavery does not, in its general character- 
istics, differ from Roman slavery. The Roman slaves were 
considered the same as quadrupedes, quadrupeds, or brutes, 
four-footed animals. The degradation of the slave corre- 
sponds to, and is the contrast of the despotic and tyrannical 
authority of the master. The slave can claim no right to 
himself, to his body, or to his soul. He has no right to the 

22* 



258 CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 

fruits of his own labor or skill, as all these belong to his 
master. He is compelled to use such food, clothing, and 
shelter as his master may see fit to give him. He may 
be bought, sold, or bartered like goods and cattle. He 
may be beaten, scourged, branded, or even killed, without 
anv punishment inflicted for these wrongs. The child-slave, 
as soon as born, is classed with the beasts of the field. 
Over his infancy no mother has a right to watch. No 
father may instruct or guide him. Let Jay complete this 
picture : "Torn from his parents and sold in the market, he 
soon finds himself laboring among strangers, under the 
whip of a driver, and his task augmenting with his ripening 
strength. Day after day, and year after year, is he driven 
to the cotton or sugar field, as the ox to the furrow. No 
hope of reward lightens his toil. The subject of insult, the 
victim of brutality, the laws of his country afford him no 
redress. His wife, such only in name, may at any moment 
be drao-o-ed from his side; his children, heirs only of his 
misery and degradation, are but articles of merchandise; 
his mind, stupefied by his oppressors, is wrapped in dark- 
ness; his soul, no man careth for it; his body, worn with 
stripes and toil, is at length committed to the earth, like the 
brute that perisheth." 

The slave, too, possesses those peculiarities of bodily 
organization, which are looked upon with deep disgust, con- 
tempt, prejudice, and aversion. Their ignorance, stupidity, 
filth, rags, nakedness — their servile air, low employments, 
repulsive food, wretched dwellings — their purchase, sale, 
and treatment as brutes — all these are so many steps of 
degradation. 

The slave, too, is destitute of learning, wealth, office, 
personal respectability, influential friends, and all those 
peculiarities, habits, tastes, and acquisitions which excite 
the interest of others in his behalf. If he have talents, 
they are buried for want of education to develop them. 



CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 259 

Add to the foregoing, that the slave is robbed of all mo- 
tives to noble exertion, and can be acted on only by fear. 
So says the slaveholder, Mr. Turnbull : " The only principle 
upon which any authority over them [the slaves] can be 
maintained, is fear ; and he who denies this has little knowl- 
edge of them." The Rev. Thomas S. Clay, another slave- 
holder, says: "The fear of corporeal punishment is the 
only motive peculiar to a system of slavery." The master 
rules by an undisguised reign of terror. The degrading 
whip, and branding iron, and chains, and stocks, banishment 
from country, and a thousand other indignities are con- 
stantly employed to subdue or keep subdued the hapless 
slave. And those whose natural feelings will not allow 
them to use the whip or stocks, are compelled, by slavery, 
to deliver over their unwhipped refractory slaves to the 
cruel trader, who seizes the stubborn, but now doomed 
convict, and, in chains, transfers him to the sugar or cotton 
plantations, where the last spark of liberty is extinguished 
forever in his bosom. 

If it be said that many benevolent and pious slave- 
holders do much to elevate their slaves, by a treatment 
which counteracts the power of slave laws — to this we 
reply, that this is readily admitted ; and right gladly do we 
acknowledge and record these acts of justice. But this is 
done, however, as no part of slavery, but in spite of it; 
and these pious endeavors and acts, to which slavery gives 
no countenance, are so many witnesses which testify so 
strongly against the system, that a conscience but partially 
awake can never be at ease in treating human beings as 
slavery would treat them. 

Now, this degradation of human beings is expressly for- 
bidden in Scripture : " If thou canst be free, use it rather. 
Be ye not the servants of men. Ye are bought with a 
price." The original dignity of man is at variance with the 
degradation of slavery. This degradation is condemned in 



260 CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 

the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt, as appears from the 
various declarations concerning their bondage. 

(3.) The Scripture calls slavery oppression, and condemns 
it under the name of sinful. 

Slavery, in Scripture, is called oppression: "And the 
Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. 
And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in 
mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the 
field; all the service wherein they made them serve was 
with rigor," Ex. i, 13, 14. "I have also seen the oppres- 
sion wherewith the Egyptians oppress them," Ex. iii, 9. 
That the Scriptures call slavery oppression, is also evident 
from Isaiah lviii, 6 : "Is not this the fast that I have chosen ? 
to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy bur- 
dens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break 
every yoke?" 

The treatment which the Hebrews received from the 
Egyptians, though far less oppressive than that which our 
slaves receive, was, nevertheless, of the same nature which 
slaves every- where receive. (See Ex. i, 11-14; ii, 23, and 
v, 7-10.) The Egyptians reduced the Israelites to slavery in 
two respects. First, they compelled the males to involun- 
tary service ; and, secondly, they gave them no compen- 
sation. In these two particulars, Egyptian and American 
slavery are the same. In other respects, our slavery is 
much worse than theirs. Anions them the males onlv were 
enslaved ; and they were not bought and sold, and separa- 
ted from their families, as is the case with us. Our slavery 
is much more oppressive than that of Egypt. 

Oppression is an essential part of slavery, and is embodied 
in all the laws that sustain it. Indeed, the slave laws, and 
the practice under them, form a complete legalized system 
of oppression ; and they could not well be more oppressive, 
were the laws enacted for the express purpose of establish- 
ing oppression. As a proof of this, let all that is oppressive 



CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 2G1 

in the slave laws be removed, and slavery wouia have 
no existence. It could not live a day, if the element of 
oppression were separated from it. 

Now, oppression is denounced and punished as a sin: 
"And when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, 
the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and 
our labor, and our oppression," Deut. xxvi, 7. "For the 
oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now 
will I rise, saith the Lord ; I will set him in safety from 
him that puffeth at him," or "that would insnare him," 
Ps. xii, 5. "He shall judge the poor of the people, he 
shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in 
pieces the oppressor," Ps. lxxii, 4. " If thou seest the 
oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment 
and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter; for He 
that is higher than the highest regardeth ; and there be 
higher than they," Ecc. v, 8. From these and a multitude 
of texts of Scripture, it is plain that slavery is a system of 
grievous oppression, which is declared to be a great sin, and 
punished as such with the most signal punishment. God 
punished it with ten plagues of Egypt, among which was 
the destruction of the first-born, and, in the end, with the 
destruction of their king and army. In short, oppression 
has been punished with .all manner of judicial severities, 
even with slaughter and death. Hence, the Scripture for- 
bids slavery as it exists among us, as often and as severely 
as it forbids oppression. 

(4.) Slavery is sinful, because it deprives of just and 
righteous wages. 

The right of laborers to wages is constantly enjoined in 
the holy Scriptures. A fair equivalent or compensation to 
the laborer for his services, is most clearly enjoined, as the 
following texts will show ; and these are only mere speci- 
mens of the language of Scripture on the subject: "Woe 
unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and 



262 CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 

his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor's service 
without wages, and giveth him naught for his work," Jer. 
xxii. 13. "The laborer is worthy of his hire," Luke x, 7. 
"The laborer is worthy of his reward," 1 Timothy v, 18. 
"Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and 
equal," Col. iv, 1. 

In these passages an equivalent for the labor rendered is 
most expressly enjoined. But slavery violates this great 
moral precept. It deprives the slave of himself in the 
outset, and then deprives him of all the fruits of his labor. 
The slave does not receive for his labor the same compensa- 
tion that a freeman does. The coarse raiment, the hard 
fare, the rude cottages, the scanty furniture, the partial 
medical attendance, and scanty provision for old age, form 
no proper equivalent for the services of the slave. The 
leading element of slavery is to exact from the slave more 
than he receives. Were it not for its real or supposed 
profit, in contributing to the pleasure, comfort, riches, or 
dignity of the master something beyond what slaves receive, 
slavery would soon come to an end. 

The Bible, therefore, which demands that the laborer 
shall receive just compensation, condemns slavery, in con- 
demning the withholding of just and equal wages. If to 
defraud a hired servant of one day's wages be a sin, to 
compel a man to labor during life, and give no wages, is a 
much greater sin. The following is a specimen of the 
judgments denounced against those who defraud the la- 
borer: "Behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped 
down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, 
crieth; and the cries of them that have reaped are entered 
into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth," James v, 4. This 
denunciation must lie against slaveholders ; because the hire 
is by fraud kept back from the laborer. Were the Scrip- 
tural requirement of just wages exacted from slaveholders, 
they would soon abandon the entire system as unprofitable. 



CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 263 

(o.) In condemning the capture of fugitive slaves, the 
Scripture condemns slavery. 

The Scripture, in the following words, condemns the 
capture of fugitive servants or slaves : " Thou shalt not 
deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from 
his master unto thee : he shall dwell with thee, even among 
you in the place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, 
where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him," Deut. 
xxxiii, 15, 16. This law teaches, that the mere voluntary 
escape of a servant from his master, was deemed sufficient 
presumptive evidence that he was oppressed in his master's 
service, and was, therefore, entitled to his freedom. The 
servant could not be subjected again to servitude without 
his consent. He might choose the place in which he should 
dwell. And this fact shows that the Israelites were to 
protect such fugitives even at the expense of war. (Isaiah 
xvi, 3, 4.) This law seems to have reference to foreign 
servants, who were oppressed with the cruel slavery which 
then prevailed, but which was expressly condemned by the 
Mosaic laws. Thus God, who hates and punishes all 
tyranny and oppression, interposes his authority to rescue 
such persons from cruel masters. This law provides, that 
if any person of a foreign nation, held in unrighteous servi- 
tude, or in servitude against their will, fled to the Israelites, 
he should be received and protected as a freeman, and 
neither returned to his master nor oppressed by them. 
And this law recognized the right of all men to liberty, and 
condemned all servitude of innocent persons, except that 
which was voluntary on the part of those who rendered 
the service. 

The statutes and principles regulating servitude — not 
slavery — among the Hebrews, provided to the same extent 
in behalf of Hebrew servants, who were all voluntary serv- 
ants, except culprits. We say the Hebrew laws did not 
regulate slavery, but, on the contrary, condemned it. He 



264 CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 

that stole a man, or sold him, or if he retained him, was con- 
demned to death. And no innocent being, according to the 
Mosaic law, could be sold by another, or reduced to servi- 
tude of any kind contrary to his own choice. If, during the 
six years' service, or less, as the case might be, the master 
of a Hebrew servant deprived him of an eye, a tooth, or 
the like, he forfeited all right to future service, so that the 
servant was to be free for his tooth's sake. (Ex. xi, 26, 27.) 
Thus, in the temporary and voluntary servitude which was 
allowed and sanctioned by God, whenever the master 
treated the servant with cruelty or injustice, such as mutila- 
tion or injury of any member of his body, the servant, by 
statute, was freed from any further service, and might, there- 
fore, assert his freedom as his right. 

The foreigner who was oppressed with grievous servi- 
tude, might flee to the Israelites, who, by their law, Avere 
bound to receive and protect him, as appears from Deut. 
xxii, 15, 16, as well as from Lev. xix, 33, 34. According 
to the latter passage, the fugitive or sojourning stranger 
should not be vexed or oppressed, but permitted "to dwell 
with them as one born among them." The Israelites were 
instructed " to love such as themselves," while at the same 
time they were reminded of their own oppressive servitude 
in Egypt, as a reason why they should love, and therefore 
treat kindly, every oppressed person. 

Now, the slave laws respecting fugitive slaves, and the 
practice under these laws, are in direct opposition to the 
laws and principles of the law of Moses, and, indeed, of the 
whole revealed will of God. While the laws of Moses 
rescued a Hebrew from service for maltreatment, and re- 
ceived and protected oppressed foreigners who fled to them, 
the slave laws and the practice under them do just the 
opposite. The oppressed slave can not be released from 
his service, for maltreatment where he resides; and if he 
attempts to fly from oppression, he is pursued as a murderer 



CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 265 

or notable culprit, and lias little or no protection wherever 
he may fly to. No crime in a slave is so great, in the view 
of a slaveholder, as that of running away from his master, 
though to avoid the greatest possible oppression. We are 
commanded in Scripture, to love and assist our fellow-men 
when they are oppressed; yet, whoever assists a slave to 
escape from the cruel bondage of slavery, is pronounced by 
slave laws and slaveholders as guilty of the greatest crime. 
If the slave, however oppressed with poor and scanty 
food, with inadequate clothing and shelter, with stripes and 
mutilation, or the like, attempts to escape to a land of 
freedom, he is at once denounced as an outlaw. If sus- 
pected of having an intention to escape, he is watched with 
sleepless vigilance. If he makes the attempt to flee, he is 
pursued by day and by night. Blood-hounds are or may 
be set on his track. Deadly weapons are used to mutilate 
him, if he can not otherwise be taken. He is shot down as 
the common enemy of his race, if he can not otherwise be 
taken. Experienced and professional hireling man-hunters 
are dispatched after the fugitive from oppression, and he is 
taken by stratagem if possible. The entire newspaper press 
is hired to advertise the fugitive, and his description to the 
life is publicly announced every-where. High rewards are 
publicly offered for his detection or delivery. When seized 
by force or by fraud, he is dragged, in chains and gagged, 
to the dominion of his master. He is made an example to 
the other slaves, often at the expense of his life, but mostly 
at least by mutilation and scars. The whip and the stocks, 
cropping, branding, the collar, and a thousand other instru- 
ments and methods of torture are employed, to complete 
the terrible example of punishment for the capital offense 
of running away from cruel oppression. Or, perhaps, the 
unmanageable retaken refugee, after enduring such correc- 
tion as is deemed necessary, is now to be transported for 
life, and sold for the cotton field or sugar plantations, or 

23 



266 CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 

doomed to waste life in the rice swamps. But who can 
draw the picture of these enormities ! We can not do it. 
No one can do it. Who, by pen and ink, can portray the 
bloodthirsty hounds let loose on the innocent victim — the 
cruel master and overseer, and collected neighbors, with all 
deadly weapons shouldered, in hot pursuit — the negro- 
catcher in speed to win the prize, the hire of his damning 
labor — and then the bribed squire, and constable, and man- 
catcher in the free states on the scent of the fugitive — the 
common jails converted into slave barracoons? All these 
and a thousand more baffle description, and we must not 
attempt the fruitless endeavor. 

If the northern states were really free, the slaves would 
soon escape into them, and slavery would soon become 
extinct by emigration. Is there liberty for the slave, at 
present, in any part of the United States? Certainly not. 
When he steps on the soil of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, or Iowa, he is still a slave. The man-stealer still 
pursues him, and is aided in his work by the citizen and 
the laws of the free states, so called. It is true, we all 
say, "All men are created equal, and endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights: anions; which are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." And God said, 
"Thou shalt not deliver to his master the servant which 
is escaped from his master unto thee." But we have cov- 
enanted with man-stealers, and we can not obey God's laws. 

The following is from a Kentuckian, who was conversant 
with slavery: 

"In December of 1833, I landed at New Orleans, in the 

steamer W . It was after night, dark and rainy. The 

passengers were called out of the cabin, from the enjoyment 
of a fire, which the cold, damp atmosphere rendered very 
comfortable, by a sudden shout of ' Catch him — catch him — 
catch the negro.' The cry was answered by a hundred 
voices: 'Catch him — kill him.' 



CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 267 

"After standing in the cold water for an hour, the mis- 
erable being began to fail. We observed him gradually- 
sinking — his voice grew weak and tremulous — yet he con- 
tinued to curse! In the midst of his oaths he uttered 
broken sentences. ' I didn't steal the meat — I didn't steal — 
my master hves — master — master lives up the river — [his 
voice began to gurgle in his throat, and he was so chilled 
that his teeth chattered audibly] — I didn't — steal — I didn't 
steal — my — my master — my — I want to see my master — I 
didn't — no — my mas — you want — you want to kill me — I 
didn't steal the — ' His last words could just be heard as 
he sunk under the water. 

"During this indescribable scene, not one of the hundred 
that stood around made any effort to save the man till 
he was apparently drowned. He was then dragged out, 
and stretched on the bow of the boat, and soon sufficient 
means were used for his recovery. The brutal captain 
ordered him to be taken off his boat — declaring, with an 
oath, that he would throw him into the river again, if he 
was not immediately removed. I withdrew, sick and hor- 
rified with this appalling exhibition of wickedness. 

" Upon inquiry, I learned that the colored man lived some 
fifty miles up the Mississippi; that he had been charged 
with stealing some article from the wharf; was fired upon 
with a pistol, and pursued by the mob. 

"In reflecting upon this unmingled cruelty — this insensi- 
bility to suffering and disregard of life, I exclaimed, 'Is 
there no flesh in man's obdurate heart!' One poor man, 
chased like a wolf by a hundred blood-hounds, yelling, 
howling, and gnashing their teeth upon him, plunges into 
the cold river to seek protection! A crowd of spectators 
witness the scene, with all the composure with which a 
Roman populace would look upon a gladiatorial show. 
Not a voice heard in the sufferer's behalf. At length the 
powers of nature give way — the blood flows back to the 



268 CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 

heart — the teeth chatter — the voice trembles and dies, 
while the victim drops down into his grave. 

"What an atrocious system is that which leaves two 
millions of souls, friendless and powerless, hunted and 
chased, afflicted and tortured, and driven to death, without 
the means of redress ! Yet such is the system of slavery !" 
(James A. Thome.) 

" Occasionally, armed parties of whites go in pursuit of 
them, who make no secret of their determination to shoot 
down all that refuse to surrender — which they sometimes 
do. In one instance a negro, who was closely pursued, 
instead of heeding the order to surrender, waded into a 
shallow pond, beyond the reach of his pursuers; refusing 
still to yield, he was shot through the heart by one of the 
party. This occurred near Natchez, but no notice was 
taken of it by the civil authorities; but in this they were 
consistent, for the city patrols or night watch are allowed 
to do the same thing with impunity, though it is authorized 
by no law. 

"Another mode of capturing runaways is by blood- 
hounds. This I hope is rarely done. An instance was 
related to me in Claiborne county, Mississippi. A run- 
away was heard about the house in the night. The hound 
was put upon his track, and in the morning was found 
watching the dead body of the negro. The dogs are 
trained to this service while young. A negro is directed 
to go into the woods, and secure himself upon a tree. 
When sufficient time has elapsed for doing this, the hound 
is put upon his track. The blacks also are compelled to 
worry them till they make them their implacable enemies : 
and it is common to meet with dogs, which will take no 
notice of whites, though entire strangers, but will suffer no 
black beside the house servants to enter the yard. Cap- 
tured runaways are confined in jail till claimed by their 



CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 269 

owners. If they are not claimed within the time prescribed 
by law, they are sold at public sale, and in the meantime 
are employed as scavengers, with a heavy ball and chain 
fastened to one of their ankles." (New York Evangelist, 
January 31, 1835.) 

In the Constitution of the United States we have the 
following clause, which has been assumed, by subsequent 
acts of Congress, as the basis on which were founded the 
statutes to arrest fugitive slaves: "No person held to 
service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, 
escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law 
therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall 
be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service 
or labor may be due." (Art. iv, sec. ii, clause 3.) 

Claiming authority from this clause of the Constitution, 
an act of Congress was passed February 12, 1793, and is 
as follows: "When a person held to labor in any of the 
United States, or in either of the territories on the north- 
west or south of the river Ohio, under the laws thereof, 
shall escape into any other of the said states or territories, 
the person to whom such labor or service may be due, his 
agent, or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize or arrest 
such fugitive from labor, and to take him or her before any 
judge of the circuit or district courts of the United States, 
residing or being within the state, or before anv magistrate 
of a county, city, or town corporate, wherein such seizure 
or arrest shall be made ; and upon proof to the satisfaction 
of such judge or magistrate, either by oral testimony or 
affidavit taken before and certified by a magistrate of any 
such state or territory, that the person so seized or arrested 
doth, under the laws of the state or territory from which 
he or she fled, owe service or labor to the person claiming 
him or her, it shall be the duty of such judge or magistrate 
to give a certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent, or 

23* 



2*70 CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 

attorney, which shall be sufficient warrant for removing the 
said fugitive from labor to the state or territory from which 
he or she fled." 

For many years Pennsylvania has been the forum of most 
of the decisions respecting fugitive slaves. The records, 
however, are but few, as most of the cases have occurred 
before justices of the peace, who have been generally the 
bribed allies of the slaveholders, as has been the case in 
most of the free states bordering on the slave states. Judge 
Washington decided that the clause in the Constitution "did 
not extend to the case of a slave voluntarily carried by his 
master into another state, and there leaving him under the 
protection of some law declaring him free." The same 
judge also declared, " that the act of Congress applied 
exclusively to fugitive slaves, and not to those whom their 
masters themselves brought from one state to another." 
(See Stroud, pp. 166, 167.) 

In 1826 the law of Pennsylvania was made more strin- 
gent, so that magistrates were not allowed to decide in 
cases of fugitives, but they were brought before the judges. 
But, as the certificate of the judge is to be regarded as 
conclusive evidence that the claimant may remove his 
captive to a land where his color is his condemnation, even 
in Pennsylvania great injustice to colored persons may be 
perpetrated with impunity. But in those states where 
justices are the arbiters of law and of fact, man-stealing 
may be prosecuted under the cover of law. Indeed, thou- 
sands of free persons have been enslaved, under the pretext 
that they were fugitives from service or labor. 

No one who examines the subject can avoid perceiving 
that the laws of the United States, and of the slave states, 
and some of the free states, are in direct opposition to the 
Mosaic code, in regard to those who escape from slavery. 
When the Hebrew was maltreated, his obligation as a 
servant ceased ; although no Hebrew was allowed to be a 



CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 271 

slave, according to the law of Moses, or the principles of 
the Bible. When an alien, or stranger, or one not of the 
Hebrew nation, among whom slavery, properly so called, 
prevailed, fled to the Hebrews, he was to be received, 
treated, and protected as a freeman, at any risk. The 
reason was, that because slavery — that is, involuntary and 
hereditary service — was essentially and unavoidably sinful, 
no slavery could be allowed where the law of God gov- 
erned; and therefore it could not be tolerated among the 
Hebrews. Had real slavery existed in the Hebrew nation, 
by virtue of the Mosaic code, its practical effects would 
have been similar to those in our slave states, and in all 
other slave countries. But as long, and so far, as the 
Israelites observed their laws on servitude, the common 
atrocities and cruelties of slavery had no being. It was 
only when they violated their laws, that they practiced 
human oppression ; for while God sanctioned and regulated 
several mild kinds of servitude among the Hebrews, for the 
benefit of the poor servants themselves, he most effectually 
prohibited every thing like slavery of any kind. He that 
stole, or sold, or retained a stolen man, was to be punished 
with death. (Exodus xxi.) And as these are the three 
principal modes of enslavement — all others being reducible 
to these — and these were forbidden, slavery was expressly 
prohibited, under pain of death, to every individual of the 
Hebrew nation. Poor persons might sell themselves for a 
time; but no Hebrew could sell another human being. 
Were the principles and statutes of the Mosaic code intro- 
duced into the slave states, slavery could not live more than 
six years, or fifty at most, in their midst. Nay, were the 
regulations of the Mosaic code only in regard to the recep- 
tion of fugitive slaves, and the emancipation of Hebrews 
when maltreated, applied to the regulation of southern 
slavery, it could not exist any length of time under such 
regulations. 



272 CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 

There is such an amount of positive wickedness and 
inhuman cruelty found in this single character of slavery, 
in regard to fugitive slaves, that no pen can describe them. 
Many well-disposed persons in the free states, because the 
laws supported this barbarous conduct, have silently over- 
looked the enormities. But the progress of the bold and 
daring effrontery of slave-catchers, and manifest kidnappers, 
has become so glaring and intolerable, that the general 
sentiments of our best men are directed to observe the clear 
sovereignty of the Mosaic code over the oppressive laws of 
Congress and the slave states. To legalize crime, and 
throw around it the sanction of statutory enactments, is more 
wicked than to perpetrate it after it has been made lawful. 
Thus, the members of a legislature who would enact a law 
authorizing theft and murder, would be more guilty than 
actual thieves and murderers. The former justify crime, 
and thus blot out all distinction between right and wrong ; 
the latter merely commit the crime, when legalized, but 
attempt no justification of the offense. 

It has been said, as well it may, that " there are many 
benevolent slaveholders who would by no means pursue, as 
is commonly done, their fugitive slaves." This is admitted. 
But then their conduct is properly a protest against the 
sinfulness of slavery; for this same capture of runaways is 
a part, and an essential part, of the system ; and therefore 
their conduct is a practical acknowledgment of the sinfulness 
of slavery. 

We might here bring under discussion several express 
prohibitions — such as " Thou shalt not kill ;" " Thou shalt 
not steal " — which slavery directly and grossly violates ; but 
we will consider these under the discussion on the ten com- 
mandments, of which they form a part. 

(G.) Many examples could here be given in reference to 
fugitive slaves which would show, to the life, what slavery 
is. In this work we have occasionally quoted instances of 



CONTRARY TO SCRIPTURE PROHIBITIONS. 273 

the practical workings of the system. Here we have not 
room to enlarge. We will content ourselves with a mere 
outline of the steps of treating runaways, which could be 
confirmed by hundreds or even thousands of examples 
under all or most of the items. 

First. The vigilant caution observed to prevent running 
away. 

Second. The pursuit of fugitives. 

Third. The blood-hounds, or other dogs, employed to 
find them. 

The profession of hunting men with dogs seems to be 
still a business worth pursuing, as appears from the follow- 
ing advertisement, in the Sumner County (Ala.) Whig : 

"Negro Dogs. — The undersigned having bought the entire 
pack of negro dogs — of the Hay and Allen stock — he now 
proposes to catch runaway negroes. His charge will be $3 
per day for hunting, and $15 for catching a runaway. He 
resides three and a half miles north of Livingston, near the 
lower Jones' Bluff road. William Gambel. 

"Nov. 6, 1845.— 6m." 

Fourth. The deadly weapons used to kill or mutilate 
them when necessary. 

Fifth. The professional men-hunters. 

Sixth. Advertisements in the public papers. 

Seventh. The fugitive dragged back in chains. 

Eighth. Whipped or tortured on return. 

The world — whether antediluvian, heathen, Moham- 
medan, or popish — never yet furnished greater examples of 
sinful, wicked conduct, than is practiced continually under 
the foregoing heads ; and the limits of our volumes alone 
prevent their insertion. W x e must refer our readers, how- 
ever, to the various publications which have made collec- 
tions from the published accounts of the slaveholders 
themselves, who, in this matter, have, without designing it, 
proclaimed to the world their own sin and shame. 



274 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 



CHAPTER II. 

SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 

Slavery is contrary to many plain Scriptural injunctions 
or commands ; or, in other words, there are duties enjoined 
in Scripture which can not be performed, except in direct 
opposition to the laws which establish slavery, and the 
practice under these laws. And, as the violation of these 
commands is sinful, the system of slavery, which demands 
the violation of Scriptural command, and therefore prohibits 
the performance of Christian duties, must be chargeable 
with the sin. 

We furnish the following plain Scriptural command, 
which slavery violates, by preventing the performance of 
the duties enjoined in these commands or injunctions. 

1. Slavery is contrary to justice, or righteousness. 

Justice is, "mum cuique attribuens" " giving to every one 
his own." Justice and righteousness are one and the same. 
Justice is an eternal and immutable principle, emanating 
from the perfections of God. It is a principle of right, in 
opposition to wrong. On this ground Abraham made an 
appeal to God himself, who sustains the appeal to this 
general principle of right. " Shall not the Judge of all the 
earth do right?" Genesis, xviii, 25. It is not a conven- 
tional agreement, usage, or custom. Justice and injustice 
are not the same, but, like virtue and vice, the one is 
opposed to the other. 

Now, slavery is a violation of the principles of right, or 
justice. Slavery does not "give to each his own." It 
deprives a man of his labor, or, rather, it robs him of him- 
self, his body, and his soul. The Africans, as well as 
others, sprung from one common father, and were all alike 
free. They were not enslaved for crime. They were either 
stolen or taken violently, and were therefore enslaved by 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 275 

theft or forcible robbery. And what commenced by theft 
and robbery, is now continued by robbery or violence. 
Every new generation is now enslaved by a fresh act of 
violence. As all are born free, and children, as soon as 
born, are enslaved, the violence or robbery, by law, is 
repeated in the case of every child, whose mother is a slave. 
Every child of a slave mother is robbed at its birth, by an 
overt act of injustice, considered by all people as the greatest 
wrong that could be inflicted. 

2. Slavery is contrary to the great law of love. 

This law was given to the Hebrews in the following 
words: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am 
the Lord," Lev. xix, 18. By neighbor every man is 
meant ; for the same injunction is given in regard to stran- 
gers, (verse 34.) And the word neighbor is explained by 
"another man," (Lev. xx, 10, and Romans xiii, 8.) And 
this law of love is repeated in the New Testament by our 
Lord, (Matt, xxii, 39,) and most peremptorily enjoined by 
the apostles. "Charity [or love] is kind," 1 Cor. xiii, 4. 
"Love worketh no ill to his neighbor." The law of love 
certainly, therefore, requires three things. 

The law of love requires us to act justly toward all 
men. Hence, it requires masters to render to their serv- 
ants a just equivalent for their services. But slavery 
refuses to do this ; and justice demands, that the servants 
shall be the disposers of their services, by an agreed price. 
But slavery knows nothing of this Scriptural mode of re- 
quiting ; for its code fixes on the person who must serve, 
and the amount of service to be rendered, and demands no 
equivalent, but, on the contrary, refuses it, or leaves it op- 
tional with the master to do as he pleases. 

This law of love is kind. It teaches to do good to all. 
If we love our neighbor, we will endeavor to promote his 
happiness and do him good. It certainly can not be doing 
him good to seize on him, and his property, and his family, 



276 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 

and appropriate all to ourselves. But it is useless to speak 
of slavery as a system of good to the slaves. This was 
never pretended as the cause why they were brought from 
Africa ; nor is it the plea held forth in the slave laws. Nor 
is the good of the slaves, in any degree, the object in view 
by the slave system. Slavery aims at the good, the profit, 
the benefit of the master, and at nothing else ; for the 
recent plea of slaveholders, when pressed by argument, of 
keeping slaves for their good, is nothing more than an insult- 
ing aggravation of the known and undeniable sinfulness of 
slavery. It is preposterous to suppose that it is doing good 
to human beings to treat them as slaves, when this treat- 
ment is an organized system of wrong and injury, from 
beginning to end. If we love our neighbor, we shall feel 
an interest in promoting his happiness. If we love him in 
a great degree, we shall feel a proportionate interest in pro- 
moting his happiness. If we love him as ourselves, we 
shall take the same delight in his happiness that we do in 
our own. Our love to our children leads us to accord to 
them all the rights and privileges of men, when they arrive 
at a proper age. If we love the children of others as we 
ought, we will accord them all the privileges of men, 
when they arrive at maturity. True love to them would 
never enslave them from their birth, or refuse them full 
liberty when they are of full growth, or treat them as 
slaves are treated from birth to maturity, without education, 
or the common privileges of minors or apprentices. 

The law of love prohibits every species of ill to our 
neighbor. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. That 
slavery is a positive injury to his neighbor can not be denied ; 
and therefore it must be opposed to the law of love. And 
what is slavery but a series of injuries to the slave from his 
birth to his grave ? As to father, he is not permitted to have 
any. His mother is merely his- nurse, to rear him for the 
master, as the dam rears the young for its owner. In 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 277 

tender youth, no lessons of moral, religious, or intellectual 
instruction are communicated, other than those necessary to 
make him a profitable piece of property to his master, as 
his laborious drudge in all after life. When come to matu- 
rity, he is then the marketable commodity of his owner, to 
be sold, or kept at hard labor, as the mere estimate of 
dollars and cents will calculate, and nothing else. If he 
has a wife at all, even for a time, she must be under the 
control of another, and a separation may take place any 
moment. His children are sold before his eyes to the 
highest bidder, whose faces he will never see again. If 
superannuated -old age renders him unfit for labor, then his 
master, who has been robbing him from his birth, is to be 
the only arbiter and dispenser of his food, raiment, and all 
earthly supplies. 

If it be said that some keep slaves for their good, we 
reply, that this can not be allowed as to the system in 
general. The system is chargeable with all we bring against 
it. And in regard to particular cases, we reply, that to 
treat them for their good, well-instructed love would teach 
their release from their degraded condition; because far 
more would be benefited than injured by it, and the 
benefits would be far greater than the injuries. And, as one 
individual can not be held in slavery for his real benefit, 
without exposing another, or many, to be held in slavery to 
his injury, then Christian charity would dictate to keep none 
in slavery. 

No conscientious, duly-informed man, will consider him- 
self entitled to use the services of another, because he has 
power over them, without rendering to him an equivalent. 
And there can be no equivalent, in food, clothing, comforts, 
or even money, rendered to a man which can be an equiva- 
lent to him for his own self, or his personal liberty and 
ownership in himself, and his rightful ownership in his wife 
and children. The law of love requires the master to 

24 



278 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 

regard the relation between himself and his slaves as a rela- 
tion which is in itself sinful, and therefore to be dissolved 
without the least delay which the case will admit. 

3. What is called "the golden rule" is in direct opposi- 
tion to slavery. "Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would 
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them : for this 
is the law and the prophets," Matt, vii, 12. 

The following is the exposition of St. Augustine on this 
passage: "This is the sum of the law and the prophets. 
For we are to learn by this principle, Whatsoever you desire 
to be done to you, do the same to another; and whatsoever you 
are unwilling to be done to you, you should not do to another. 
You are not willing that others should deprive you of life, 
your wife, your good name, your wealth, etc. ; therefore do 
not take these from others, but preserve and cherish them." 
(See Corn, a Lapide in Matt, vii, 12.) 

Or take the exposition of Cornelius a Lapide, a distin- 
guished Roman Catholic commentator, who wrote in 1G85, 
and who certainly gives an impartial view of the text. 
The sense is as follows; namely, "Whatsoever I have here- 
tofore said concerning loving our neighbor and of giving of 
alms, all these things arise from this first dictate of nature; 
and the first principle of moral philosophy depends on this 
principle of equity — that whatsoever you will to be done to 
you, do the same to others; and whatsoever you are un- 
willing to suffer from others, you should not inflict on 
another." (A Lapide in Matt, vii, 12.) 

Take the exposition of the sober Doddridge on the text : 
"Animated by the goodness of God, you should study to 
express your gratitude for it by your integrity and kindness 
to your fellow-creatures, treating them, in every instance, 
as you would think it reasonable to be treated by them, if 
you were in their circumstances and they in yours ; for this 
is, in effect, a summary and abstract of all the human and 
social virtues recommended in the moral precepts of the 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 279 

law and the prophets, and it was one of the greatest ends 
of both to bring men to this equitable and amiable temper." 

No law of holy Scripture is of more binding force than 
this. It does not allow one human being to tyrannize over 
another. The following observations will place this in a 
convincing light : 

(1.) No one under the influence of this rule ever made a 
man a slave. Slavery could not originate under the exer- 
cise of this rule. No one would think he is doing that 
to another which he is willing to be done to himself, in 
violently dragging a human being from Africa, and then 
selling him, or even buying such a man. Nor can he, 
guided by this rule, seize the newly-born infant, and thus 
commence a course of violence which may last for life. 

(2.) And as slavery could not originate under the guid- 
ance of this rule, so it could not be continued under it. 
This rule is at variance with exacting unrequited labor from 
another, feeding him with coarse or scanty food, clothing 
him poorly, preventing him from reading the Bible, or the 
like. 

(3.) As no one would willingly subject himself or his 
children to the operation of slave laws, he would never 
subject others to the operation of these laws, if guided by 
this rule. 

(4.) None, under the fair operation of this law, would 
ever continue to hold others in slavery; for no man would 
be willing to be treated as a slave, and, therefore, by con- 
sidering himself as in the place of the slave, he could never 
treat him as he would be unwilling to be treated. No man 
can hold an innocent person in involuntary servitude without 
violating the Savior's law of love. Nothing could induce 
the slaveholder to take the place of his slaves; therefore, 
he does not do to them as he would have them do to him. 
No man desires slavery. All men desire freedom. "If 
thou may est be free, use it rather." The desire of freedom 



280 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 

is a lawful one; and as all Avill choose, and by their judg- 
ment and conscience claim it for themselves, so no one 
can deprive others of freedom under the influence of the 
rule — do unto others as you would they should do unto 
you. 

(5.) This great branch of the law of love establishes the 
brotherhood of the human family, whether as individuals or 
nations. Slavery violates this; because it excludes the 
slave from the fraternal sympathies of mankind, by for- 
bidding to treat him as a fellow-man, a neighbor, and 
brother. Slavery, at least in its theoretical principles, re- 
gards one human being as the mere tool of another. And 
though in practice it is sometimes more and sometimes less 
inhuman, it is always a complete divestment of legal pro- 
tection in the enjoyment of the rights and privileges of 
brotherhood in the human family. So long as any one is 
held in slavery, others are prevented from discharging 
toward him the offices of neighbor and friend. Whatever 
instruction, sympathy, relief, protection, etc., the slave 
enjoys, is through the mere indulgence of the slaveholder. 
This not only deprives the slave of rights, but it is a stand- 
ing prohibition to mankind, forbidding the performance of 
those duties to the slave which are enjoined in the second 
table of the law. He that would act the neighbor to the 
slave would expose himself to the severest penalties of the 
law. In the eye of the divine law it is a duty to receive 
and protect the fugitive slave ; but in the eye of the slave 
laws it is a crime. It is true, the master, in some cases, 
may allow the slave to read the Bible, or others to read it 
for him ; and yet he may not allow any such rights to remain 
to the slave. What right has any man to such poiver? 
The very possession of power to punish as a crime the 
duties and charities of life, is a restriction on the liberty of 
others to treat that slave as a man and a neighbor. No 
master allows the free discharge of the duties of human 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 281 

brotherhood ; and, indeed, no one can allow it without 
ceasing to be a slaveholder. 

(6.) The force of this law of human brotherhood is 
evaded by the false sentiment, that length of possession is 
considered by the laws as conferring right. But as a human 
being can not, without the greatest injustice, be seized as 
property, he can not, without equal wrong, be held and 
used as such. The wrong, in the first seizure, consists in 
the deprivation of rights and infliction of wrongs. The 
duration of these wrongs, and even the increase of them 
by continuance, only aggravates the evil. 

It is true that the length of possession, in some cases, 
may give a right where the goods were acquired by unlaw- 
ful means. This may be the case in two respects: First, 
when the goods were such as could lawfully be applied to 
individual use. Now, a man can not be held thus as prop- 
erty. The African on his own shore is a man, who by 
nature has a right to be free. The same right he has here 
and elsewhere. All men who are slaves are stolen property, 
and the use of them as property is wrong, and can never be 
right. Secondly, the difficulty of determining who is the 
original owner, and of unsettling all property, may sanction 
the mere possessor of lawful property to hold it. But this 
can not be the case in slavery ; the proprietor of man can 
not be rendered doubtful by lapse of time ; the true owner 
of every human being is himself. No brand on the slave 
was ever so conspicuous as that mark which God has set 
on every man. Every man owns himself, and none other 
does own him except by gross wrong and injustice. Hence, 
no right accrues to the master from the length of the wrong 
which has been done to the slave. 

(7.) It may be asked here, is it lawful for a slave to 
desire the master who has purchased him, to liberate him 
by undergoing the loss of the purchase money? We 
answer that this is a lawful desire; because none have a 

24* 



282 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 

right to sell a man as a slave who has never forfeited his 
liberty, and, therefore, no one has a right to purchase him; 
and if a man has no right to purchase another, he has no 
right to hold him when purchased. It is easier for a man 
to endure the loss of a few hundred dollars, than it is for 
another to endure a whole life of bondage. Hence, when 
a man willingly holds another in bondage, merely because 
he has paid a certain price for him, he shows plainly that 
he does not love him as he does himself. The slaveholder 
would give all the money he could command, rather than 
be a slave during life ; yet, for the sake of money, he will 
hold another in slavery during life. How absurd is his 
profession of loving him as himself! 

(8.) And such, too, was the law. The golden rule of 
Jesus Christ will apply strictly to the servitude authorized 
and defined by the law of Moses. This will appear from 
the peculiar circumstances of their condition : 

1. Servants bought of the heathen were most likely cap- 
tives taken in wars, or persons convicted of crimes, or, more 
likely, poor persons Avho sold themselves, or rather their 
services. The Israelites could neither purchase kidnapped 
or stolen persons nor retain them in bondage, according to 
the law of Moses. 2. The heathen nations around the 
Jews would not likely kidnap or sell their own children, 
except such as were convicted of crimes, or those taken in 
wars. 3. The heathen servants were bettered in their con- 
dition by becoming the servants of the Jews, because they 
were admitted to all the privileges of the Jewish Church, 
as soon as they were prepared for it ; and thus liberty was 
finally secured to themselves and their children forever. 4. 
If they did not comply with the rite of circumcision, yet 
their children were made free by circumcision, while the 
parents became free at the jubilee. 5. Any bad treatment 
to the servant from the master secured his liberty. (Ex. 
xii, 20-26; Lev. v, 22-26.) To prevent oppression, the 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 283 

servant who fled from his master was permitted to do so, 
and was entitled to his freedom. (Deut. xxiii, 15-17.) All 
bond-servants, hirelings, and sojourners among the Jews 
had all the profits arising from their lands, every seventh 
year. (Lev. xxv, 1-7.) 

It is, therefore, plain, that although there was servitude 
among the Jews, and although they had bondmen and 
bondmaids, they had no slaves among them. And all their 
Jaws concerning the servitude allowed, were in accordance 
with the law of reciprocal love and brotherhood. But such 
is not American slavery, for the law of reciprocal love 
would prevent its existence, and the application of it would 
soon utterly overturn it wherever it does exist. 

(9.) The teachings in the prophets, the same in character 
with those of Moses, were also hostile to slavery, and that, 
too, according to the principle of our Savior's golden rule 
of practical love. " Is not this the fast that I have chosen ? 
to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, 
and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every 
yoke?" Isa. lviii, 6. 

We furnish the following practical instance of the work- 
ing of the golden rule. A Mrs. Magruder, a lady of our 
acquaintance, who resides in Kentucky, twelve miles above 
Newport, was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Her husband, during his lifetime, owned a number of slaves. 
Most of them, during her husband's life, were disposed of 
to those who took them to the south. Mrs. Magruder had 
one young man left. She was a devoted member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church for many years. In 1845, 
Avhen the subject of slavery came especially under consid- 
eration, she hecame convinced of the sinfulness of the sys- 
tem, and her duty to make reparation as far as in her power. 
The slaves formerly sold were now beyond her reach. She 
accordingly emancipated her young man, and gave him fifty 
acres of valuable land. A neighbor of hers, who had 



284 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 

joined the Church South, expostulated with her. He 
thought it strange that she now, in her old age, had changed 
her course from what it had been. She replied, that if she 
had been doing wrong all her days till then, it was now full 
time for her to change her course and do better. He ob- 
served, that it was no harm to retain the negroes as slaves, 
as slavery was better for them than freedom. To this she 
replied as follows: "Brother, whenever you can believe it 
to be right that another should handcuff you so, [placing 
her hands across at the wrists,] and handcuff your wife and 
children, and then sell you all to separate masters, so that 
you should never see each other again, but spend your days 
in slavery — whenever you can truly say that all this would 
be right in reference to you, your wife, and children, then 
tell me slavery is right, but not before." This was enough. 
Her neighbor had no answer which he could give. And 
Mrs. Magruder's argument, founded on our Savior's golden 
rule, will silence every slaveholder. No man ever met it, 
and no man ever will. 

And the operation of this rule on every heart would be 
the same as it was on Mrs. Magruder's, were it received as 
it ought. With thousands it has prevailed, as might be 
shown from the many tens of thousands of emigrants now 
in the free states, who, under the solemn convictions of the 
wrongs and sinfulness of slavery, left the regions of op- 
pression, and sought new homes in states where slavery has 
no existence. The witnesses on this list may be called 
legion, because they are many. 

4. Slavery must be criminal, because it supersedes and 
necessarily excludes the duty of showing mercy to the 
poor. 

The Scripture makes it the duty of all, according to their 
abilities, to help the poor: "He that hath mercy on the 
poor, happy is he," Pro v. xiv, 21. "He that honoreth his 
Maker hath mercy on the poor," Pro v. xiv, 31. "He that 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 285 

hath pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord," Prov. xix, 17. 
And this pity does not consist of verbal expressions of 
compassion, but also in acts of relief. (James ii, 15.) 

But there is no class of persons so poor as slaves. And 
they are innocently poor ; for their poverty has not been oc- 
casioned by their own misconduct, but by unjust laws and 
arbitrary powers. If, then, slaveholders are justifiable in 
keeping their slaves in the most abject poverty and bondage, 
they can be under no obligation, by the law of God, to help 
the less poor and the less innocent. And if slaveholders 
are exempt from helping the poor in their distress, all others 
must be equally exempted ; for one moral law equally binds 
all men ; therefore, if slavery be right, all acts of charity 
to the poor may be neglected. 

Besides, slaves are doubly poor. They are not only 
wanting in temporal supplies, in common with all other poor 
persons, but, as slaves, they are additionally poor in intel- 
lectual and religious privileges. The want of mental cul- 
ture is the greatest of all wants, because it affects the 
eternal state of its subjects. Therefore, to aid the poor 
and needy heathen in different parts of the world, where 
the greatest poverty is a want of the knowledge of Christ, 
claims the attention of the enlightened and wealthy citi- 
zens of our country more than the poor in worldly sub- 
stance. Now, if it be right for slaveholders to keep men 
as slaves, and, therefore, to- keep them in bondage and igno- 
rance, it can not be their duty to undergo the expense 
of sending the Gospel to the heathen. Consequently, to 
ask slaveholders to contribute to missions at all, is an insult 
to them, and a condemnation of their conduct. 

5. Slavery is opposed to the command, " Children, obey 
your parents in the Lord : for this is right. Honor thy 
father and mother, which is the first commandment with 
promise," Eph. vi, 1, 2. "Children, obey your parents in 
all things ; for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord," Col. iii, 20. 



286 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 

Slavery, also, is opposed to the command to parents, 
which enjoin on them the duty of instructing, exercising 
discipline over, and controlling their own children: "And, 
ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath ; but bring 
them up in the nurture [discipline] and admonition [instruc- 
tion] of the Lord," Eph. vi, 4. "But if any provide not 
for his own, and especially for those of his own house, 
[or kindred,] he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an 
infidel," 1 Tim. v, 8. 

Thus, children are commanded to "obey their parents in 
all things" — "to obey them in the Lord." And parents are 
commanded to discipline and instruct their children, and to 
provide for them the means of subsistence. 

Slavery teaches, demands, and, by directly invading the 
divine law, secures, that the child is the property of the 
master, and that his parents have no control over him. The 
master displaces the father and mother from the place 
where God assigned them, and takes their place. The 
father of the slave child has no command of his time, so 
that he can instruct his children, exercise discipline over 
them, or even pray with them. He can make no provision 
for his family. 

Slave children can not obey their parents. Slavery does 
not permit them to do so. The master entirely controls the 
children, and directs how their time and labor are to be 
regulated. The children are deprived of all interest in 
their parents. They are not permitted to obey their parents 
during their minority, or to assist them when they arrive at 
manhood. The daughter has no right to obey her mother, 
nor assist her in any thing, except as the master may see 
fit to permit. 

As neither slave parents nor children have any rights at 
all, because they are mere goods and chattels, it is impos- 
sible they should obey the positive injunctions as heretofore 
quoted. According to the laws and customs of slavery, 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 287 

slave parents have no rights or duties at all over or in rela- 
tion to their children ; nor have the children any rights or 
duties in relation to their parents. Accordingly, they 
seldom exercise, or attempt to exercise, any such lights or 
duties. They are usually separated or sold from each 
other forever, as the wants or wishes of the masters may 
call for. 

Let us now see how the practice is in the system of 
slavery, by presenting a few examples of the actual work- 
ing of slavery. 

Here is a man, a slave-trader, driving before him two 
boys with a hickory stick, and carrying a child under his 
arm. At a little distance is the mother with chains on her 
wrists, stretching out her hands toward the little babe ; but 
is prevented, because a strong man holds her while she 
endeavors to follow her shrieking babe and her sobbing- 
boys. The owner, who sold the two boys and child, stands 
calmly, unmoved, smoking a cigar, while the overseer holds 
the mother by mere might, and the trader whips off the 
boys and carries with him the screaming child, while the 
agonizing mother is kept for her good qualities as a breeder. 

A trader was about to start from Louisville, Kentucky, 
with one hundred slaves for New Orleans. Among them 
were two women, with infants at the breast. Knowing 
that these infants would depreciate the value of the mothers, 
the trader sold them for one dollar each. Another mother 
was separated from her sick child, about four or five years 
old. Her anguish was so great that she sickened and died 
before reaching her destination. 

Mr. Birney gives the following narrative, which affords 
only mere specimens of every-day occurrences in slave com- 
munities : 

"Not very long ago, in Lincoln county, Kentucky, a 
female slave was sold to a southern slaver, under most 
afrlictino: circumstances. She had at her breast an infant 



288 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 

boy three months old. The slaver did not want the child on 
any terms. The master sold the mother, and retained the 
child. She was hurried away immediately to the depot at 
Louisville, to be sent down the river to the southern market. 
The last news my informant had of her was, that she was 
lying sick, in the most miserable condition, her breasts 
having risen, inflamed, and bursted. 

"During the winter, at Nashville, a slaver was driving 
his train of fellow-beings down to the landing, to put them 
on board a steamboat, bound for New Orleans. A mother 
among them, having an infant of about ten months old to 
carry in her arms, could not keep pace with the rest. The 
slaver waited till she came up to where he was standing; 
he snatched it from her arms, and handing it over to a 
person who stood by, made him a present of it. The 
mother, bereft in a single moment of her last comfort, was 
driven on without delay to the boat. ' On the side of the 
oppressor was power ; but she had no comforter.' " (See 
Antislavery Record, vol. i, pp. 51, 52.) 

In Marion county, Missouri, a negro-trader was, not long 
ago, making up a drove for the Red river country. He 
purchased two little boys of a planter. They were to be 
taken away the next day. How did the mother of the 
children feel ! To prevent her interference, she was chained 
in an out-house. In the night she contrived to get loose, 
took an ax, proceeded to the place where her [yes, her] 
boys slept, and severed their heads from their bodies ! She 
then put an end to her own existence. The negro-trader 
and planter quarreled, and went to law, about the price/ 
(Ibid., p. 97.) 

G. Slavery is in opposition to several express commands 
of holy Scripture, addressed to husbands and wives. 

On this head we quote the following Scriptures: "The 
head of the woman is the man," 1 Cor. xi, 3. "Wives, 



. 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 289 

submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the 
Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as 
Christ is the head of the Church ; and he is the savior of 
the body. Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, 
so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church, 
and gave himself for it," Eph. v, 22-25. "So ought men 
to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his 
wife loveth himself," verse 28. "For this cause shall a 
man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto 
his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. Let every one 
of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and 
the wife see that she reverence her husband," verses 31, 33. 
(See also Titus ii, 4 ; 1 Peter iii, 1.) 

Because slaves are property, they may be bought and 
sold like other property ; and hence the code of slavery 
knows nothing of the relation of husband and wife, and 
therefore pays no attention to its privileges, obligations, or 
duties. For, as in procuring slaves originally, whether by 
conquest of war, kidnapping, or purchase, there is no regard 
paid to the relation of husband or wife, parent or child, so 
also in holding slaves, according to the slave code, no regard 
is had to the relation of husband or wife. All the laws of 
slavery are founded on the principle — no husband, no wife, 
no parent, no child. The master and the slave are the only 
names known to slavery. And when any benevolent 
persons, under the promptings of conscience or the plainest 
dictates of humanity, refuse to separate husbands and 
wives, they act in direct opposition to the first principles of 
the slave code, and in spite of its demands. 

The master may entirely forbid marriage, or may dissolve 
it at pleasure. And if the master sometimes may have the 
will to respect marriage, the slave code, with its iron hand, 
prevents the execution of his purpose. Slaves, like other 

25 



290 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 

property, may be taken by execution, sold for debt, and 
may, therefore, fall into the hands of the highest bidders, 
who may drive them to distant parts of the country, and 
separate them without reference to marriage obligations. 
When they fall into the hands of heirs, the same fate awaits 
them ; and, indeed, many willfully execute the laws, and sell 
husbands and wives to different purchasers, without regard 
to the marriage state. 

But, even when the husband and wife are not separated 
from each other, there are duties and privileges belonging 
to husbands and wives, which slavery sets aside. From the 
texts we have quoted, we learn that wives are bound "to 
submit themselves to their own husbands, as unto the Lord ;" 
"to be subject to their own husbands in every thing;" "to 
reverence her husband." While the husband is the "head 
of the wife," he is " to love his wife ;" "to love her as him- 
self." Now, slavery pays no regard to these requirements. 
The master, not the husband, possesses the supreme au- 
thority over both husband and wife. The master, too, can 
enforce obedience to his commands by any mode of punish- 
ment he sees fit to adopt, with the exception of life and 
limb; and even over these his power extends, if he takes 
away the life, or breaks the limb, provided it is not done in 
the presence of white persons. The power of the master 
over the slave wife extends to the employment of time, her 
food, clothing, domestic arrangements, her habitation, her 
comfort. The wife can not attend to her sick husband, nor 
the husband to his sick wife, except as the master may 
allow it. 

As to the practice in this matter, we are at no loss to 
ascertain it. Most southern papers contain standing adver- 
tisements of slave-dealers, offering "cash and the highesi 
price for likely young negroes, of both sexes, from twelve 
to twenty-five." These can not be had without tearing 
asunder families. As a couple of specimens, we give the 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 291 

following from the great numbers of such as appear 
constantly in the southern papers: 

" Two hundred and fifty dollars reward. — Absconded 
from my estate in Goochland county, (Dover,) in August 
last, slave Washington, very active and sprightly. He was 
purchased of Mr. Lane's estate in January, 1836, at George's 
tavern, in Goochland ; had been a waterman in James river 
for several years ; is well known, and has a wife and other 
relations about Columbia and Cartersville, where it is be- 
lieved he may now be found. I will pay a reward of $100 
for his delivery to my manager, Dover, $50 if secured in 
any jail in Virginia, so that I may get him again, or $250 
if taken out of the state and restored to me. 

"John Heth, Richmond P. 0. 

"January 30, 183V." 

"Twenty-five dollars reward. — Ran away, my man 
Charles. His wife was carried off in April last by Mr. 
William Edwards, of Mississippi. The above reward, etc. 

''William Jones, 
Of Lambandy Grove, Mecklenburg, Va. 

"September 23, 1836." 

In the slaveholding states, while droves of slaves are 
collecting for the more southern market, the public prisons 
are frequently crowded with parents and children, and hus- 
bands and wives, to be disposed of in the south to any 
purchaser. A petition, in former years, was presented to 
the Kentucky Legislature against this inhuman practice, 
and rejected. The following is a description of a drove, 
collected and driven by Stone and Kinningham, of Bourbon 
county, Kentucky. The description is from the pen of the 
Rev. James H. Dickey, a pious and impartial Presbyterian 
minister, who met the drove before it entered Paris, Ky.: 

"In the summer of 1822, as I returned with my family 
from a visit to the Barrens of Kentucky, I witnessed a scene 
such as I never witnessed before, and such as I hope never 



292 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 

to witness again. Having passed through Paris, in Bourbon 
county, Kentucky, the sound of music, beyond a little rising 
ground, attracted my attention; I looked forward, and saw 
the flag of my country waving. Supposing I was about to 
meet a military parade, I drove hastily to the side of the 
road; and, having gained the top of the ascent, I discov- 
ered, I suppose, about forty black men, all chained together 
after the following manner : Each of them was handcuffed, 
and they were arranged in rank and file. A chain perhaps 
forty feet long, the size of a fifth-horse-chain, was stretched 
between the two ranks, to which short chains were joined, 
which connected with the handcuffs. Behind them were, I 
suppose, about thirty women, in double rank, the couples 
tied hand to hand. A solemn sadness sat on every coun- 
tenance, and the dismal silence of this march of despair 
Was interrupted only by the sound of two violins; yes, as 
if to add insult to injury, the foremost couple were fur- 
nished with a violin apiece ; the second couple were orna- 
mented with cockades; while near the center waved the 
republican flag, carried by a hand literally in chains. I 
may have mistaken some punctilios of the arrangement, for 
' my soul was sick,' my feelings were mingled and pungent. 
As a man, I sympathized with suffering humanity; as a 
Christian, I mourned over the transgressions of God's holy 
law ; and, as a republican, I felt indignant to see the flag of 
my beloved country thus insulted. I could not forbear 
exclaiming of the lordly driver, who rode at his ease along 
side, ' Heaven will curse that man who engages in such 
traffic, and the government that protects him in it.' I pur- 
sued my journey till evening, and put up for the night. 
When I mentioned the scene I had witnessed, 'Ah!' cried 
my landlady, 'that is my brother.' From her I learned 
that his name is Stone, of Bourbon county, Kentucky, in 
partnership with one Kinningham, of Paris ; and that a few 
days before he had purchased a negro woman from a man 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 293 

in Nicholas county ; she refused to go with him ; he at- 
tempted to compel her, but she defended herself. Without 
farther ceremony he stepped back, and, by a blow on the 
side of her head with the but of his whip, brought her to 
the ground; he tied her, and drove her off. I learned 
farther, that besides the drove I had seen, there were about 
thirty shut up in the Paris prison for safe-keeping, to be 
added to the company, and that they were designed for 
the Orleans market. And to this they are doomed for no 
other crime than that of' a black skin and curled locks. 

' Ah me, what wish can prosper or what prayer, 
For merchants rich in cargoes of despair ? 
Who drive a loathsome traffic, guage and span, 
And buy the muscles and the bones of man.' (Cowper.) 

"Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? shall 
not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 

" But I forbear, and subscribe myself yours, 

"James H. Dickey. 

"September 30, 1824." 

The following is the testimony of the Rev. A. Rankin, a 
Tennesseean by birth and education, and brother of Rev. 
John Rankin, so well known for his strong antislavery feel- 
ings. The speech was delivered in Pittsburg, in 1835. 
Mr. Rankin said: 

"But we are told, 'You at the north know nothing of 
slavery — why meddle with what you do not understand?' 
Sir, Ave do know what slavery is. It is usurped author- 
ity — a system of legalized oppression. If we could show 
what is this moment transpiring in the land of slavery, 
every bosom in this house would thrill with horror. I will 
state a case : A minister of the Gospel owned a female 
slave, whose husband was owned by another man in the 
same neighborhood. The husband did something supposed 
to be an offense sufficient to justify his master in selling 
him for the southern market. As he started, his wife 

OiS* 



294 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 

obtained leave to visit him. She took her final leave of him, 
and started to return to her master's house. She went a 
few steps, and returned and embraced him again, and then 
started the second time to go to her master's house; but 
the feelings of her heart overcame her, and she turned 
about and embraced him the third time. Ao-ain she en- 
deavored to bear up under the heavy trial, and return ; but 
it was too much for her — she had a woman's heart. She 
returned the fourth time, embraced her husband, and turned 
about — a maniac. To judge what slavery is, we must 
place ourselves in the condition of the slave. Who that 
has a wife, who that has a husband, could endure for a 
moment the thought of such a separation/ Take another 
case: A company of slave-dealers were passing through 
Louisville with a drove of slaves, of all classes and descrip- 
tions. Among them were many mothers with infants in 
their arms. These often became troublesome to the drivers : 
and in this case, in order to get rid of the trouble, the inhu- 
man monsters severed the cords of maternal affection, and 
took these infants, from three to five months old, and sold 
them in the streets of Louisville, for what they could get. 
Do we know nothing of slavery ? Can we shut our eyes to 
such facts as these, which are constantly staring us in the 
face?" (See Antislavery Record, vol. i, p. 81.) 

V. Slavery is at variance with those commands in holy 
Scripture which enjoin the propagation of knowledge by 
some, and the receiving of it by others. We are com- 
manded to "search the Scriptures," John v, 39. But slavery 
utterly prohibits the slaves from obeying it. For no slave 
is permitted to read, under the severest penalties ; nor is 
any one permitted to instruct him, under similar penalties. 
We are commanded to "prove all things, hold fast that 
which is good," 1 Thess. v, 21. It is impossible to obey 
this command in its letter or spirit, to any extent, unless 
he has the possession and use of all his natural rights, 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 295 

personal security, personal liberty, and private property, in 
their fullest extent ; that is, unless he is a free moral agent. 
Slavery effectually prohibits the slaves from obeying such 
commands. 

Indeed, the religion of heaven, whether in its Jewish or 
Christian edition, is a great system of light and knowledge. 
And its tendency and design are to inculcate knowledge 
among all classes of mankind. It brings down none from 
a state of intellectual and moral elevation ; while its great 
work is to raise all to virtue and knowledge. The state of 
slavery is, therefore, in direct hostility to the commands 
and, indeed, provisions contained in holy Scripture, the end 
of which is to enlighten mankind; while slavery prohibits 
all this, and by this means sets itself up against God, his 
light and his truth. 

8. It is the duty of the slave to aim at freedom. "Art 
thou called being a servant? care not for it ; but if thou 
mayest be made free, use it rather. Ye are bought with a 
price; be not ye the servants of men," 1 Cor. vii, 21, 23. 
Here it is declared, that freedom is preferable to slavery; 
and yet, that the deliverance of the soul from sin is of greater 
importance than civil freedom. Yet, the command is clear, 
si x at Svvaaai, — if thou mayest, or, rather, if thou canst, if 
thou art able to become free — that if it was in the %>ower of 
the slave to become free, he was to avail himself of the 
1 privilege. If the laws or his master set him free — if he 
could purchase his freedom, or some one do it for him — if 
in any way, not sinful, he could become free — he was to 
avail himself of the advantage. The command in the 
23d verse, "be not ye the servants of men," is equally 
plain. There are no such commands uttered in regard to 
the relations of husband and wife, parent and child, as are 
here given in regard to slavery. No one is thus urged to 
dissolve the marriage relation. No such commands are 

O 

given to relieve children from obedience to their parents, or 



296 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 

to exempt parents from bringing up their children in the 
discipline and instruction of the Lord, and of providing 
temporal supplies for them. 

It is, therefore, an error to maintain that the relation 
between master and slave is of the same obligation as the 
relation between child and parent, husband and wife, master 
and servant. The relation between master and servant is a 
voluntary one, founded in the necessities of mankind, and .is 
mutually beneficial to both. But slavery is a perversion of 
just servitude. Slavery originates in robbery and violence, 
and is continued by acts of injustice and violence, and can 
not exist without the infliction and endurance of the greatest 
wrongs. Servitude is the voluntary act of the person who 
serves. God sanctions voluntary servitude, but he never 
did and never can sanction slavery ; because they are essen- 
tially different in their origin, and in their nature, and in 
their results. The one is formed by the mutual agreement 
of the employer and employed, for a stipulated considera- 
tion, and for the mutual benefit of each; while the other 
is an act of theft or of robbery on the one part, and of cruel 
divestment of rights, and infliction of wrongs on the other 
part. The servant is free; the slave is not free. The 
servant has wages ; the slave has no wages. The children of 
the servant are free, while the children of the slave follow 
the condition of the mother. In short, slavery originated 
in sin, is continued by sin, and ends in the constant involve- 
ment of sin to the very last.* 

None who are duly enlightened on slavery will ever con- 
tend, except sophistically, that the relation of parent and 
child, of husband and wife, of master and servant, are the 
same with, or even similar to, the relation between the 
master and slave. This is put beyond all doubt, by Judge 

* See Cornelius a Lapide on 1 Cor. vii, 24, where the curious 
exposition of Chrysostom and others are referred to. Also the 
decisions of Constantine ad Concilium Toletani, iv c, 64. 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 297 

Ruffin, of North Carolina, in his decision of the case, The 
State vs. Mann. He authoritatively decides as follows : 

"The established habits and uniform practice of the 
country in this respect, are the best evidence of the portion 
of power deemed by the whole community requisite to the 
preservation of the master's dominion. If we thought dif- 
ferently, we could not set our notions in array against the 
judgment of every body else, and say that this or that 
authority may be safely lopped off. This has, indeed, been 
assimilated at the bar to the other domestic relations ; and 
arguments drawn from the well-established principles, 
which confer and restrain the authority of the parent over 
the child, the tutor over the pupil, the master over the 
apprentice, have been pressed on us. The Court does not 
recognize their application. There is no likeness between 
the cases. They are in opposition to each other, and there 
is an impassable gulf between them. The difference is that 
which exists between freedom and slavery — and a greater 
can not be imagined. In the one, the end in view is the 
happiness of the youth, born to equal rights with that gov- 
ernor on which the duty devolves of training the youth to 
usefulness, in a station which he is afterward to assume 
among freemen. To such an end and with such a subject, 
moral and intellectual instruction seem the natural means, 
and for the most part they are found to suffice. Moderate 
force is superadded, only to make the others effectual. If 
that fail, it is better to leave the party to his own head- 
strong passions, and the ultimate corrections of the law, 
than to allow it to be immoderately inflicted by a private 
person. With slavery it is far otherwise. The end is the 
profit of the master, his security, and the public safety. 
The subject is doomed, in his own person and his posterity, 
to live without knowledge, and without the capacity to 
make any thing his own, and to toil that another may reap 
the fruits. What moral considerations shall be addressed 



298 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL COMMANDS. 

to such a being, to convince him what it is impossible but 
that the most stupid must feel and know can never be true, 
that he is thus to labor upon a principle of natural duty or 
for the sake of his own personal happiness. Such services 
can only be expected from one who has no will of his 
own — who surrenders his will in implicit obedience to that 
of another. Such obedience is the consequence only of 
uncontrolled authority over the body. There is nothing 
else can operate to produce the effect. The power of the 
master must be absolute, to render the submission of the 
slave perfect. I most freely confess my sense of the harsh- 
ness of this proposition. I feel it as deeply as any man can. 
And, as a principle of moral right, every person in his 
retirement must repudiate it ; but in the actual condition of 
things it must be so. There is no remedy. This discipline 
belongs to the state of slavery. They can not be disunited 
without abrogating at once the rights of the master, and 
absolving the slave from his subjection. It constitutes the 
curse of slavery to both the bond and free portions of our 
population. But it is inherent in the relation of master 
and slave. That there may be particular instances of 
cruelty and deliberate barbarity, where in conscience the 
law might properly interfere, is most probable." (Wheeler's 
Law of Slavery, pp. 245, 246.) 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. 299 

CHAPTER III. 

SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES AND PRIVILEGES. 

Slavery is contrary to many Scriptural principles and 
privileges, which secure to the whole race of man cer- 
tain rights which can not be invaded without guilt and 
wrong:. 

1. Slavery is contrary to the original grant w T hich God 
gave to man at the creation, as the original charter gave 
no grant of property in man. This grant is contained in 
the following words: "And God blessed them, and God 
said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish 
the earth, and subdue it : and have dominion over the fish 
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every 
living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, 
Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which 
is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the 
which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall 
be for meat," Gen. i, 28, 29. This grant is recognized and 
reasserted to the human race after the flood. (Gen. ix, 1, 2.) 
It is referred to and repeated by the Psalmist as the estab- 
lished truth of God, still unrepealed, and never to be 
repealed: "For thou hast made him a little lower than the 
angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou 
madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands ; 
thou hast put all things under his feet : all sheep and oxen, 
yea, and the beasts of the field ; the fowl of the air, and 
the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the 
paths of the seas," Psalm viii, 5-8. This is the original 
charter on which the right of all property is founded. 
Slavery contradicts this grant in two respects : first, by one 
portion of the human family claiming and securing another 
portion of the human family as property ; and secondly, by 
depriving that portion of mankind of their right to enjoy 



300 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. 

a portion of the common property bestowed on the whole 
race of mankind. 

(1.) Slavery is at variance with this original grant, 
because some claim property in others, and exercise the 
dominion vested in property over them. We no where find 
that God has given the Saxon a right of property in the 
Indian or African — the rich and powerful in the poor and 
defenseless. God only is the lawful despotes — the lord, or 
possessor of unlimited authority over all mankind. The 
human despotes, or slaveholder, claims a power which alone 
can belong to almighty God. No such dominion of man 
over man, or property in man, was granted to man, such as 
the dominion and property of man in the earth and its 
productions ; and in the renewal of this grant to Noah, and 
in the repetition of it by the Psalmist, there is no such 
grant of man in man recognized. Indeed, there are many 
Scriptural declarations, denouncing any such claims, and 
pronouncing them to be robbery, man-stealing, violence, 
oppression, and condemning all these acts as truly sinful : 
" He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found 
in his hand, he shall surely be put to death," Ex. xxi, 16; 
and when God gave all mankind a right of property in 
inanimate and irrational creatures, he declares that one man 
has no right of property in the person of another. 

(2.) Slavery is at issue with this original grant of 
property in irrational and inanimate creatures to all men, 
because it deprives the portion who are enslaved of their 
just portion: 1. It deprives the slaves of the right of 
being fruitful in a lawful way, by separating husbands and 
wives, and dividing and scattering families. 2. Slavery is 
a usurpation of that great original charter from God — of all 
the gifts of Providence to all mankind ; for it monopolizes 
the whole to the slaveholders themselves, and robs the 
slaves of their just rights. 3. God gave the grant of the 
whole earth to all mankind, to be possessed and enjoyed ; 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. 301 

but slavery robs a great part of mankind of this right. It 
prevents them from the right of property in the earth or 
its productions. All men, in virtue of the original grant, 
which is still the unrepealed law of God, have a moral 
right to possess property of their own by such ways as 
the moral law and just civil regulations sanction ; but 
slavery cuts off the slave from this provision, by declaring, 
in opposition to the law of God, "that slaves have no legal 
rights of property in things real or personal ; and whatever 
property they may acquire belongs, in point of law, to their 
masters." (Stroud, pp. 45-50.) Slavery is, therefore, the 
complicated crime of avarice and robbery — avarice, in 
monopolizing the land and other property of our neighbors ; 
and robbery, in doing it by violence, without the shadow of 
justice. 

2. Slavery sinks the divine image of God, in which man 
was created, to the level of brutality. 

Of all the creatures which God created, he impressed 
his own image upon none except man. The creation of 
man was the subject of particular deliberation, so to speak, 
in the Godhead: "And God said, Let us make man in our 
image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion 
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and 
over the cattle, and over a)l the earth, and over every 
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God cre- 
ated man in his own image, in the image of God created he 
him ; male and female created he them," Gen. i, 26, 27. In 
Gen. v, 1, we find it again: "In the likeness of God made 
he him." This image consisted of knowledge, righteous 
ness, and true holiness. (Eph. iv, 24.) And because man 
was created in the image of God, no satisfaction could be 
taken for the life of a murderer: "Whoso sheddeth man's 
blood, by man shall his blood be shed ; for in the image of 
God made he man," Gen. ix, 0. So in Lev. xxiv, 17, 18, 
21, "He that killeth any man shall surely be put to death; 

26 



302 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. 

and he that killeth a beast shall make it good, beast for 
beast; and he that killeth a man shall be put to death." 
The attempt, however fruitless, to destroy the image of 
God in man, is an indirect attack on God himself — on his 
being and on his sovereignty. How wicked, then, is it, to 
degrade the image of God in man, by sinking man into the 
degradation of a brute ! God made man only a little lower 
than the angels ; but slavery associates him with the beasts. 
God "crowned man with glory and honor;" but slavery 
tears off the crown of honor and glory, and places him 
under the yoke. God made man to have "dominion over 
the works of his hands ;" but slavery casts him down 
among or beneath those works. God " put all things under 
his feet;" but slavery puts man under the feet of his 
owner. 

Man is a rational, moral, immortal being, because created 
in God's image. He is, therefore, the child or son of God, 
because created to unfold Godlike faculties, and to govern 
himself by a divine law, written on his heart and repub- 
lished in his word. Thought, reason, intelligence, con- 
science, the capacity of virtue, the capacity of Christian 
love, immortality, the idea and obligation of duty, the per- 
ception of truth, the hope of happiness, the capacity of 
endless improvement — all these moral and intellectual attri- 
butes declaring a moral connection with God, reduce to 
insignificance all outward distinctions, and make every hu- 
man being unspeakably dear to his Creator. The capacity 
of improvement allies the most ignorant to the more in- 
structed of his race, and places within his reach the knowl- 
edge and happiness of the higher world, Such a being 
was not made to be a thing. He is a person — not a thing. 

But slavery fights against the image of God in man. It 
first unmans him by making him a thing of mere property 
as far as possible. It can not .unman him so far as to de- 
prive him of immortality, or totally imbrute him, and in its 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. 303 

rage to undo him wholly, but is compelled, while endeavor- 
ing to make him a chattel or tiling, to call him a "chattel 
personal," because God himself hath set limits to man's 
wickedness, so that he "can not kill the soul," though he 
may imbrute the body and crush the spirit within man. It 
is needless here to enlarge. Slavery degrades and attempts 
to efface the moral image of God from man, consisting of 
knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. The slave- 
holder may feed and clothe the body to preserve its health, 
and thereby secure the more labor. He may even so far 
cultivate mind as to give profitable direction to the bodily 
powers, that they may profit him the more. Here is the 
utmost limit of slavery. The intellectual powers are 
crushed, and the master slave state, South Carolina, de- 
nounces "all mental improvement in slaves." And this is 
the first law of the code of slavery every-where, and it can 
never be changed till slavery is destroyed. All the mo- 
rality of the decalogue is set aside by slavery; and if any 
of it lives among the slaves, it is because there are some 
slaveholders who, in spite of the system, do much to coun- 
teract it, by acknowledging the ten commandments as oblig- 
atory on themselves and their slaves, and promoting the 
practice of them as they can. A volume would not contain 
the atrocities of slavery, as it operates against the image of 
God in man alone, to say nothing of its other legion sins. 

3. All men are redeemed by the same blood of Christ ; 
and therefore, this common and general redemption by the 
blood of Christ is at variance with slavery. 

" God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten 
son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life," John iii, 16. This redemption is so 
extensive as to reach, in its provisions and influence, to all 
and every one of the human family, in the past, present, 
and all future generations of men. The efficacy of his 
sacrifice reached backward to the fall of man, as well as to 



304 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. 

the end of time. Christ is the atonement for the sins of 
the world. Hence John the Baptist calls him "the Lamb 
of God which taketh away the sin of the world." He is 
the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," Rev. 
xiii, 8 ; " Who verily was foreordained — rtpoByvutsfis vov — fore- 
known — before the foundation of the world." 

Redemption of the race of man through the sacrifice of 
Christ is antagonistic to slavery. Almighty God delivered 
the Israelites from bondage, because such a state was in- 
compatible with the true interests of man ; and the Hebrews 
were commanded expressly not to allow slavery among 
themselves: "For they [the Hebrews] are my servants, 
which I have brought forth out of the land of Egypt : they 
shall not be sold as bondsmen," Lev. xxv, 42; and the 
servitude which God ordained to the Hebrews, whether 
among themselves or with other nations, was not slavery; 
for it differed from slavery in all the elements which consti- 
tute slavery. 

St. Paul, too, declares, that slavery is opposed to redemp- 
tion : " Ye are bought with a price ; be not ye the servants 
of men," 1 Cor. vii, 23. There are many evils, snares, 
dangers, and disabilities inseparable from a state of slavery. 
Civil slavery is utterly unbecoming the freed man of Christ : 
" For ye are bought with a price ; therefore, glorify God in 
your body and in your spirit, which are God's," 1 Cor. vi, 
20. Christians, even in their bodies, are represented as 
"the temple of God," 1 Cor. hi, 16, 17; and "the temple 
of the living God," 2 Cor. vi, 16; and "the temple of the 
Holy Ghost," 1 Cor. vi, 19; plainly showing, that Chris- 
tians are consecrated to God. They are, therefore, as the 
redeemed creatures of God, to "glorify God in their body," 
by temperance, chastity, and purity; and "in their spirit," 
by faith, hope, and love — humility, resignation, patience — 
by meekness, gentleness, long-suffering, and universal benev- 
olence. The privileges of redemption elevate men to the 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. 305 

high moral station of "kings and priests unto God," Rev. 
v, 9, 10, with the exercise of which slavery continually in- 
terferes. 

The same great sacrifice has been made for the slave as 
for the master ; and therefore, the soul of the slave is worth 
as much as the soul of the master. As a redeemed sinner — 
an heir of heaven — the slave is equal to his master. He 
has the same right to forsake his sins, repent, believe, pray, 
worship God, practice all the duties of religion, enjoy all its 
privileges — as marriage, government of his children and his 
house, etc. — as his master has. All this is indisputable, 
from the privileges of redemption ; in consequence of which 
the slave is entitled to employ his body and soul in God's 
service, and to enjoy all the means of grace. 

But slavery takes no cognizance of its victims as the 
redeemed creatures of God. It exposes them to sale, rob- 
bery, deprivations, and cruel treatment. It forbids them to 
read or to learn to read. Its code puts their time, con- 
science, body, and soul into the hands of an oppressor ; and 
all the duties, privileges, and advantages flowing from 
redemption are neither known, heeded, nor provided for, in 
the code of American slavery. If some slaveholders treat 
their slaves differently from this, no thanks to slavery for 
this. 

And how can any Christian, who has himself partaken 
of the benefits of redemption, hold another Christian 
hrother in bondage, regard him as property, sell him to 
others, break up his domestic relations, or interfere with 
any of his rights as a husband, father, son, Christian? 
Where is the right, authority, or warrant, from the word of 
God, by which one Christian holds another as property? 
Where is his light to sell him or keep him, to transfer him, 
by contract or will, to others, to appropriate the avails of 
his labor to his own use, to regulate exactly his manner of 
living, to separate him from his wife, and children, and 

26* 



306 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. 

home, and to determine the times and seasons, if any, 
when he may worship God? There is no warrant for such 
treatment of a fellow-Christian, or a human being, derived 
from the word of God. 

Indeed, the early* Christians very generally deemed it 
repugnant to Christianity, for any Christian to hold another 
in slavery, basing their argument on the declaration of 
Paul : " Ye are bought with a price ; be ye not the servants 
of men." Accordingly, Contantine the Great, in 330, made 
a decree that no Jew or Pagan should retain a Christian as 
a slave. (See lib. i, Codicis, tit. JVe Christianum, etc.) 
And the three sons of Constantine confirmed and continued 
the same law. (Sozomen, lib. hi, c. 17.) Gregory the 
Great did the same. (Greg. Mag., lib. hi, Epist. 9.) The 
Council of Toledo enacted similar laws. (Concil. Toletani, 
iv, c. 64.) Aquinas speaks approvingly of these laws. 
(Aquinas Sum. Theologize, 2, 2, q. 10, ar. 10.) (See Corne- 
lius a Lapide on 1 Cor. vii, 22.) 

4. Slavery is a usurpation of Divine right. Man is 
responsible to God for the use of his powers. It is true, 
we may exercise our powers under such limitations as still 
leave us at liberty to govern them by a supreme regard to 
the will of God. A more absolute control than this over us, 
by any human being, is subversive of the lights of the Divine 
government. Such is the power of the slaveholder, by 
which the will of the slave is subjected, on pain of fearful 
penalties, to the absolute dictation of his master. "A 
slave is one who is in the power of a master, to whom he 
belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, 
his industry, and his labor; he can do nothing, possess 
nothing, nor acquire any thing, but what must belong to his 
master." (Louisiana Civil Code, art. 35.) 

The claim of slavery equals the claim of God. It claims 
the whole man — his soul, body, and strength — all he can 
possess, all he can acquire. The slave may be legally 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. 307 

required to sin against God, by restraining prayer and 
exhortation, by whipping his parents, by lying, by Sabbath- 
breaking, by adultery ; and, in case of refusal, he may be 
doomed to excruciating pain. It is that despotic power 
which can not be exercised without oppression, and which 
it is sinful to confer on any other; or to hold it, except 
under protest, with the purpose of getting rid of it as soon 
as possible. It never can be exercised without sin. And, 
if conferred by law, it can never be held except so far as 
to hold it in view of getting rid of it for the benefit of the 
oppressed. No one can long, if at all, hold this power 
without exercising it. And the exercise of it interferes 
with the freedom of conscience and moral agency, by forci- 
bly detaining another in a condition where the duties of 
parents, children, friends, citizens, Christians, etc., can not 
be freely and fully discharged. Whatever liberty may be 
allowed a slave, he must suffer restraint in regard to plans 
of prospective duty, enjoyment, and usefulness. Yet, were 
the slaveholder's power not employed to involve the slave in 
the commission of sin or the omission of duty, the posses- 
sion of such power is usurpation ; it is holding Divine power, 
or it is exercising the prerogative of God. It is placing 
man in complete dependence on the will of his fellow, and 
holding him under legal liability to be forced against his 
conscience and his duty. It is putting one man in the place 
of God to another, as far as this can be done, than which 
no sin can be greater. And whenever this fearful power is 
conferred by law on a person without his knowledge or 
consent, he can not exercise the power without sin, or even 
retain it except under protest — that he can not hold it, 
much less exercise it, except so long as legally to get rid 
of it. 

5. The system of slavery is contraiy to the natural 
equality of mankind. 

The Bible teaches this equality. "God hath made of 



308 SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. 

one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the 
earth," Acts xvii, 26. And Malachi asks, " Have we not 
all one Father ? hath not one God created us ? why do we 
deal treacherously every man against his brother?" Mai. ii, 
10. (See, also, Job xxi, 15.) Here is established the unity 
and sameness of human nature, wherever men are found, 
and whatever their varieties may be. There are as many 
distinct persons as there are individuals in the human family ; 
but there is only one nature in all. Human nature is a unit, 
and all possess it in common. Hence, all men are born 
equal, and have equal natural rights. No man, according 
to God's law, can be born either the lord or the slave of 
another. The Declaration of Independence, the echo of 
Scripture in this matter, declares, "All men are created 
free and equal." Hence, all men are entitled to their 
natural rights, of personal liberty, personal security, and 
the right of holding property ; although these very rights 
are withheld from nearly three millions of human beings, 
who live under the flag of liberty. 

This declaration of human equality, borrowed from the 
Bible, does not mean that all men possess equal wealth or 
learning; that the parent shall have no right to the services 
of the child ; that the wife shall not be in subjection to her 
husband. This equality, according to the plain dictates of 
common sense, means, that all men, in coming into the 
world and going through it, have an equal opportunity 
to exercise all their own powers of body and mind for 
their own happiness ; that one parent shall have as good a 
right to the services of his own children as any other shall 
have to the services of his children; that every wife shall 
be in subjection to her own husband, and to no one else ; 
and that no man shall be deprived of his liberty for an 
alleged crime, "without due process of law." 

The natural equality of mankind is one of the funda- 
mental doctrines of Christianity, on which the whole system 



SLAVERY VS. SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. 309 

is based, and which sends its influence into all parts of the 
system. One of the fundamental doctrines of slavery, that 
one class of men is superior to another, is at variance with 
this Scripture doctrine. On this ground Aristotle main- 
tained slavery. And the doctrine of the essential equality 
of mankind, will prove fatal to slavery : that all men have 
one common father, that the same blood flows in all human 
veins, that all are redeemed by the blood of Christ, that all 
are partakers alike of Christian privileges, that all are 
bound to perform the same Christian duties, that all are 
heirs to the same everlasting inheritance — these great 
truths, flowing from the equality of human nature, are 
directly subversive of slavery, and at no distant day they 
will overthrow it. 

G. Slavery is contrary to the end or chief good of man, 
which is to glorify God, and enjoy him forever. 

As slavery so places men under the complete dominion of 
a master, that the slaves are not at liberty to dispose of 
their time for the service of God or the enjoyment of him, 
they are prevented from the exercise of reading, meditation, 
and prayer. God commands all men to seek and exercise 
religion. But the slave is bound to submit to the master's 
authority, come what will. The slaveholder's power is 
exercised over the 2^'ivate relative duties of the slave, with- 
out being controlled by the laws of government. The 
usurpation of that power constitutes the sin of slavery. 
The cruel administration of that power is only an aggrava- 
tion of that crime. The grand reason why a tyrant should 
be deposed, is not merely because his administration is 
cruel, but because he has usurped the power which knows 
neither bounds nor restraints. Now, this power interferes 
with or even frustrates the great end of man's being — to 
glorify God and enjoy him. 



310 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE DECALOGUE AGATNST SLAVERY. 

Slavery involves a breach of all the ten commandments. 
It breaks the first, second, third, fourth, and ninth indi- 
rectly, and the other five directly. 

God requires of man obedience to his rerealed will, 
which is comprised in the moral law. "The moral law is 
the declaration of the will of God to mankind, directing 
and binding every one to personal, perfect, and perpetual 
conformity and obedience thereunto, in the frame and dis- 
position of the whole man, soul and body, and in perform- 
ance of all those duties of holiness and riorhteousness which 

O 

he oweth to God and man ; promising life upon the fulfill- 
ing, and threatening death upon the breach of it. The 
moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten command- 
ments, the first four commandments containing our duty to 
God, and the other six our duty to man." 

" For the right understanding of the ten commandments, 
these rules are to be observed : 

"1. That the law is perfect, and bindeth every one to 
full conformity in the whole man to the righteousness 
thereof, and to entire obedience forever, so as to require the 
utmost perfection of every duty, and to forbid the least 
degree of every sin. 

"2. That it is spiritual, and so reacheth the understand- 
ing, will, affections, and all other powers of the soul, as 
well as works and gestures. 

"3. That one and the same thing, in divers respects, is 
required or forbidden in several commandments. 

" 4. That as, where a duty is commanded the contrary 
sin is forbidden, and where a sin is forbidden the contrary 
duty is commanded, so where a promise is annexed the 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 311 

contrary threatening is included, and where a threatening 
is annexed the contrary promise is included. 

"5. That what God forbids is at no time to be done; 
what he commands is always our duty ; and yet every par- 
ticular duty is not to be done at all times. 

"6. That under one sin or duty all of the same kind are 
forbidden or commanded, together with all the causes, 
means, occasions, and appearances thereof, and provocations 
thereto. 

" 7. That what is forbidden or commanded to ourselves, 
we are bound, according to our places, to endeavor that it 
may be avoided or performed by others, according to the 
duty of their places. 

" 8. That in what is commanded to others, we are bound, 
according to our places and callings, to be helpful to them, 
and to take heed of partaking with others in what is for- 
bidden them." (Presbyterian Confession of Faith on the 
Ten Commandments.) 

The sum of the first four commandments, containing our 
duty to God, is, to love the Lord our God with all our 
heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and 
with all our mind. The sum of the other six command- 
ments, which contain our duty to man, is, to love our neigh- 
bors as ourselves, and to do to others as we would have 
them do to us. 

Now, let us see how slavery, in its laws, judicial decisions, 
and the lawful practice under these laws and decisions, will 
bear the test of the ten commandments. We maintain that 
slavery — theoretical and practical slavery — is a violation of 
every commandment of the decalogue; the first four and 
ninth indirectly, and the other five directly. 

1. Slavery is a breach of the first commandment. This 
commandment requires, that we know and acknowledge 
God to be the only true God, and to worship and glorify 
him accordingly. Now, slavery necessarily prevents the 



312 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

slaves from the means of knowing God as the living and 
true God, and restrains or prevents them from worshiping 
and serving God. The master, in holding man as property, 
assumes the place of God, because his authority comes in 
superior to the obligations of God's law ; so that he can re- 
strain the slave from all those duties which the law of God 
requires of him, such as the time of worshiping God, the 
duty of taking time and using means to read his word, in 
order that he may know how to discharge his duty to God. 
This usurping the place of God is not only unjust and 
cruel, but it is an affront to the majesty of God. 

It is of no weight to say, that some individuals do not 
restrain their slaves from the means of knowledge; for 
involuntary, unmerited, hereditary slavery, of necessity, re- 
quires the means of knowledge to be withheld from the 
slaves ; and it is notorious that slaves generally are kept in 
the most degraded ignorance. Therefore, slavery is a vio- 
lation of the first commandment, because the master usurps 
the place of God, and claims the first reverence of the 
slave. 

Besides, the ignorance of the slaves renders them inca- 
pable of distinguishing that real Christianity which pro- 
duces gentleness, meekness, temperance, from that which 
they see in their masters. And hence they may be led to 
conclude that Christianity is a system of error and cruelty. 
And, probably, this is one of the causes which prevents 
many of them from attending public worship, when they 
are allowed to do so. 

Nevertheless, in justice it must be admitted that many 
slaves are truly religious. But, then, this is not owing in 
any way to slavery, but in spite of it. God inclines the 
hearts of some masters to grant certain privileges -to their 
slaves. And when this is not done, God preserves wit- 
nesses to his religion among them, amidst all the privations 
and disabilities which wicked masters impose. Yet, their 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 313 

Christianity, where it ever does exist in its genuine charac- 
ter, can not be so mature as if no slavery had thrown in its 
disabilities. And still, all things considered, Christianity 
has done very much more than all other things to benefit 
and enlighten the slave. So that in spite of all the disa- 
bilities of the cruel and wicked slave laws, true religion 
has so far gained that the very system of slavery is totter- 
ing to its foundation under the light and power of Chris- 
tianity. 

2. Slavery involves the breach of the second command- 
ment: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image," 
etc. As the first commandment comprehends particularly 
whatever pertains to the internal worship of God, the 
second comprehends whatever appertains to the external 
worship of God. It comprises partaking of sacraments, 
attending to God's ordinances, and performing those holy 
duties he has required from us to his glory, the edifica- 
tion of others, and our own salvation; it enjoins a free, 
open, and undaunted profession of the truth, a religious 
vowing to God, a diligent reading of the word of God, 
and a constant and reverent attendance on it when read 
or preached. And God has no less enjoined his external 
worship than his internal; and he requires the worship 
of the soul and body ; of the soul as the chief seat of 
worship, and of the body as the best testimony of it. 

The slave lias no power to worship God in the practical 
use of his word and ordinances; nor power to command 
his own children or household, but through the permission 
of his master. If the slave worship God at all, or teaches 
his family, it must be according to the sovereign will of 
his master. 

Now, slavery excludes the slave from the means of know- 
ing the true God and his ordinances, and prevents the 
possibility of his keeping pure and entire such religious 
ordinances as he has appointed in his word, by monopolizing 

27 



314 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

all the slave's time to himself, without allowing him either 
leisure or means to know the will of God, or to render that 
worship and reverence to him which his word requires. 
Therefore, slavery is a breach of the second commandment, 
and consequently sinful. 

Slavery approaches close to sacrificing to an idol, or false 
God. The idol is riches. The sacrifice is the temporal 
and eternal happiness of the slaves. The heathens offered 
up human sacrifices, which did not affect the eternal inter- 
ests of the victims; but slavery affects both the temporal 
and eternal interests of man, and seems to be a crime much 
worse than heathen idolatry. 

Nor is the prevention of knowledge an abuse of slavery, 
but it is essential to its existence. Indeed, the education of 
slaves is an abuse of slavery, because it tends to bring about 
their emancipation, and put an end to the practice. But 
slavery could not bear the expense of the time, labor, and 
necessary outlays of education ; for slaveholders can have no 
profits, except what arise from extortion, or the privations 
of education, food, and clothing. 

3. Slavery involves the breach of the third command- 
ment: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God 
in vain ; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh 
his name in vain." 

This commandment requires that the name of God, his 
titles, attributes, word, ordinances, sacrameftts, etc., be 
holily and reverently used in thought, word, and act. The 
ignorance of the slaves prevents the slaves from knowing 
properly the character of God, or performing the duties 
they owe him, in order to worship him agreeably to his word. 

This commandment forbids the abuse and unnecessary 
use of the name of God; but the ignorance of slaves is 
the occasion of profanity in the lives and conversation of 
slaves, so that they become addicted to profane swearing 
and cursing. 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 315 

Besides, the practice of slaveholding is a breach of the 
sacramental vows of baptism and the Lord's supper; for 
these vows bind all, with the solemnity of an oath, to love 
their neighbor as themselves, and to do to others as they 
would others should do to them. 

4. Slavery promotes the breach of the fourth command- 
ment, which is, " Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it 
holy." 

As the slave is properly amenable to no law, except the 
will of his master, if he chooses to obey the laAv of God 
for conscience's sake, the master may punish him severely ; 
so that the slave may be compelled to break the Sabbath. 
If he refuse positively to obey his master, in this, he can 
have no adequate protection from the laws of the slave 
states. It is true, however, that the laws will not give pos- 
itive protection to a master, in compelling slaves to work on 
the Sabbath; yet, as the testimony of colored persons will 
not be taken in slave states, the master may compel the 
slave to violate the Sabbath, or break any other precept of 
the moral law. Many slaveholders compel their slaves to 
labor in the field on the Sabbath. Others, by scanty allow- 
ance of food and clothing, compel them to labor on the 
Sabbath for their support; and domestic slaves, to a very 
great extent, are employed in serving their masters or fam- 
ilies on the Sabbath; and thus their Sabbath privileges 
are very few. Add to this, the ignorance of slaves in 
regard to God's word, his doctrines, moral precepts, prom- 
ises, economy of grace, greatly disqualify them from keep- 
ing the Sabbath; hence, the breach of the Sabbath is a 
necessary consequence of slavery. 

5. The practice of slavery is a breach of the fifth com- 
mandment, which is, "Honor thy father and thy mother." 
This commandment teaches the duties of parents to chil- 
dren, and the duties of children to parents. 

One of the principal duties of parents to children is, to 



316 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

instruct them in the knowledge of God's word, the doc- 
trines of religion, and the way of salvation through Christ. 
" Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is 
old he will not depart from it," Prov. xxii, 6. "And these 
words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart ; 
and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and 
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and 
when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, 
and when thou risest up," Deut. vi, 6-8. 

The duties of parents comprise providing for the tem- 
poral good of children, in furnishing protection and provi- 
sion of the necessaries and conveniences of life, and in 
preparing them for performing the duties of after life. For 
their spiritual good parents should educate their children in 
the principles of religion, discipline them in its practice and 
precepts, and leave them a good example. On the other 
hand, children are bound to reverence and love their 
parents, obey them in all things in the Lord, provide for 
them in sickness, poverty, and old age, receive their good 
instructions, and imitate their good examples. 

Slavery pays no regard to these reciprocal duties of 
parents and children. The parent is not permitted to 
instruct, command, or train up his children. The children 
are not permitted to obey or reverence their parents. Sla- 
very does this, by transferring to the master the authority 
and place of the parents over their children, and the right 
obedience of children to their parents. Thus the authority 
of the master rises above the moral law, as it relates to the 
duties of parents to children and of children to parents. 
Slavery goes beyond the furthest extent of the civil power; 
for the civil power claims no authority over the private 
rights and duties of citizens; so that a slaveholder is a 
tyrant or despot of the worst kind. 

A government founded on equity depends upon the 
power delegated to civil rulers from the people, which can 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 317 

not interfere with the private rights or private relative duties 
of the people, for these private rights and duties can not be 
transferred to representatives. But a government founded 
on despotism, without the consent of the people, usurps a 
power over the community, to command them at pleasure ; 
and yet even despotism rarely intermeddles with the private 
rights and duties of citizens. The slaveholder, as to his 
usurpation of power, ranks with the worst of tyrants; but 
in the administration of that power he far exceeds the 
tyrant. Hence, slavery is a flagrant breach of the fifth 
commandment ; nor will any thing that can be said under 
the head of the relation of master and servant overturn this 
conclusion, because servant and slave are as different in 
their meaning, in common acceptation, as any two words 
can be. The servant is one who voluntarily consents to 
serve another for wages. The slave is one who is in the 
power of his master, and is always made a slave by theft 
or robbery, and receives no wages from his master; and 
though there are duties enjoined on slaves, in reference 
to their masters, they are such duties as are enjoined on 
Christians toward persecutors, or those who maltreat them; 
or if there are duties even enjoined on slaves and their 
masters reciprocally, they are such as would terminate 
immediately or shortly in the emancipation of the slave. 
Where are rules and duties laid down respecting the just 
and religious mode of stealing or robbing men? Not in 
Scripture. On the other hand, the very acts by which 
slaves are made such, or continued such, are capital offen- 
ses, and to be punished with death. He that steal eth a 
man, or sells a stolen man, or retains a stolen man in his 
possession, is to be put to death. The moral sense of 
British and American laws have so decided, in pronouncing 
the man a pirate, and therefore worthy of death, who 
steals, robs, or sells men. The application of the same 
Scriptural rule against theft and robbery would do the same 

27* 



318 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

with every man who now voluntarily buys, sells, or holds 
children in slavery ; and this is the crying sin of the United 
States ; for, as far as the slaves are concerned, it is the same 
to them, whether their mothers were free or bond, when 
they are violently seized, as soon as born, and are feloni- 
ously, violently, and barbarously enslaved. 

6. Slavery is a direct violation of the sixth command- 
ment: "Thou shalt not kill." 

The slave laws neither protect sufficiently the lives of the 
slaves nor inflict punishment, to any efficient extent, on 
those who take away the lives of slaves. In North Caro- 
lina "any person may lawfully kill a slave who has been 
outlawed for running away and lurking in the swamps." 
(Stroud, p. 103.) By a law of South Carolina "a slave 
endeavoring to entice another slave to run away, if provi- 
sions, etc., be prepared for the purpose of aiding in such 
running away, shall be punished with death ; and a slave 
who shall aid the slave so endeavoring to entice another 
slave to run away, shall also suffer death." (Stroud, pp. 
103, 104.) Another law of the same state provides, "that, 
if a slave, when absent from the plantation, refuse to be 
examined by any white person, such white person may seize 
and chastise him ; and if the slave shall strike such white 
person, such slave may be lawfully killed." According to 
the Georgia laws, if a slave shall strike a white person, for 
the first offense he may be punished so as to save life and 
limb, and for the second offense the penalty is death; and 
the instances of death inflicted violently, under the rule of 
"moderate correction," would make a long list indeed, pro- 
vided they were collected. The following items will present 
the murderous character in its true, though not an exasfQfer- 
ated, light: 

(1.) Slavery is founded on violence, to which unless .he 
submit, the slave would be liable to suffer death; that is, he 
would be beaten and abused, in order to compel him to 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 319 

submit; and should he continue to refuse, the floggings, 
mutilations, and various modes of punishments, must ter- 
minate in death. Therefore, slavery is founded on, and 
exists by, murder ; and murder is essential to its existence. 
The robber, who spares life on condition of obtaining money, 
is a murderer in the sight of God. 

(2.) Slavery is continued by murderous measures and 
acts. 

If slaves attempt to run away themselves, or aid others to 
run away, they are murdered outright, unless they can be 
captured. If they attempt to emancipate themselves by 
force, death would be their portion, according to the laws 
of the slave states ; so that murder is necessary to continue 
slavery. 

(3.) Murder is not only theoretically interwoven with 
slavery, but it is practically carried out by numerous mur- 
derous principles, measures, acts, disabilities, privations, etc. 
There are few slave settlements in which there is not a 
number of instances of slaves suffering death, in such a way 
that, in God's account, it will be accounted murder, caused 
by cruel beating, want of clothing, hunger, hard labor, in- 
human usage. 

(4.) Indeed, slavery, in several important respects, is 
much more aggravated than a common act of murder. 
The sin of murder is not restricted to the mere act of 
depriving a person of life ; but it is depriving the innocent 
persons of the enjoyments, and privileges, and advantages 
of life. Voluntary slaveholding is a crime, which not only 
deprives the slave of civil liberty, but also prevents him 
from answering the moral end of his existence by the ac- 
quisition of knowledge ; it hinders his usefulness to society, 
and keeps him from attaining respectability among mankind, 
while he is reduced to a state of contempt and wretched- 
ness ; therefore, slaveholders who keep their fellow-creatures 
in the true condition of slaves, are guilty of a greater crime, 



320 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

in some respects, than if they would kill them all in infancy. 
A common act of murder takes away the life, but it may 
not affect the eternal state. But the slaveholder materially 
injures both soul and body, for time and eternity. They 
subject the slaves to a state of misery, ignorance, contempt, 
and wretchedness, which is worse than to kill them in 
infancy; and in their last will entail the same hereditary 
cruelty and wretchedness on the slaves and their posterity 
to the end of time. 

(5.) On the murderous character of slavery, let us hear 
what eye and ear witnesses have to say. 

The Rev. James 'Kelly, a Virginian, who wrote an 
"Essay on Negro Slavery," in 1789, declares: "A slave is 
looked upon as the property of the master, who is his own 
legislator — as touching the slave — to curse, abuse, drive 
rigorously, sell, change, give, etc. Yea, beat without re- 
striction, mark, brand, and castrate him; and even when 
life is taken away, it is but little regarded. Perhaps there 
may be a small stir if one is murdered ; but it is nothing but 
a sham inquisition ! His wife and children — if slaves — are 
all salable property ; so that the slave can not say that even 
his life is his own." (Rev. James 'Kelly, on Negro Slavery, 
Philadelphia, 1789.) 

The Rev. John Rankin, a native of Tennessee, and fa- 
miliar with all the workings of slavery, in his Letters on 
Slavery, p. 56, says : " In spite of all law, slaveholders have 
the power of life and death over their slaves. And some 
of them do exercise such power with perfect impunity. It 
is seldom that even so much as a prosecution is incurred by 
murdering them ; and I do not recollect of ever hearing of 
a single individual being executed for taking the life of a 
slave. I am persuaded there is as much humane feeling in 
Fleming county, Kentucky, as can be found in any slave- 
holding section of country, of the same extent; and I think 
this will be readily admitted by all who are acquainted with 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 321 

the people of that county ; and yet there is a certain indi- 
vidual, in consequence of an unjust suspicion, [who] fell upon 
his poor old slave, beat him on the face, and mashed it in 
such a manner as soon terminated his life ; yet by it he 
incurred not so much as a prosecution ! I mention this 
case, not because it is either singular or novel, but because 
it happened in one of the most humane sections of one of 
the mildest slaveholding countries, and therefore is well 
calculated to show what is the real state of things, even 
where slavery wears the mildest aspect. It shows that the 
system of slavery in its best form is fraught with the most 
horrid murders." 

(6.) The instances of atrocious murders of slaves by their 
masters would fill volumes. We must therefore confine 
ourselves to a few, which we adduce merely as specimens 
out of the legions which could be selected. Take the fol- 
lowing, on the testimony of Rev. James O'Kelly : 

"A master who drank to excess, one morning, lately, took 
his man- slave, and hoisted and weighed him by a tobacco 
beam fixed between his legs, another standing on the beam 
to increase the pain ; beat, cut, and lashed him till the blood 
poured down in streams. The slave begged for mercy, but 
in vain ; then spoke in a soft manner to the tyrant, saying, 
'Master, you have killed me!' He then lifted up his eyes 
to heaven, and expired. 

" Those murderers are still spared, and slavery tolerated, 
in our free United States! The land is a mere aceldama: 
the earth and all we possess is stained with blood. Dear 
Zion, too, is built up with blood. These poor outcasts of 
men have no kind of law to protect them from abuse of 
every kind, or to allow them some small pittance for a life 
of hard labor. Do not call a few rags and coarse bread 
hire. Life itself is not protected as it ought to be. A 
white man's character is regarded more than the life of a 
slave ! This is but a very short narrative of the miserable 



322 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

consequences of slavery." (Essay on Negro Slavery, by 
Rev. James O'Kelly, p. 9.) 

(7.) Advertisements in the public papers, calling for the 
murder of slaves, are of frequent occurrence in the southern 
papers. Such is the state of public opinion in the south 
that slaveholders are not ashamed to call themselves mur- 
derers, though they may substitute the terms, death, or 
kill, for murder. 

" Two hundred dollars reward. — Ran away from the sub- 
scriber, about three years ago, a negro man named Ben; 
also one other negro, by the name of Rigdan, who ran away 
about the 8th of this month. I will give the above-named 
reward of $100 for each of the above negroes, etc., or for 
the killing of them, so that I can see them. 

"W. D. Cobb. 

"Nov. 12, 1836." 

From the Wilmington (N. C.) Advertiser, June 1, 1838: 

" One hundred dollars is subscribed, and will be punctually 
paid by the citizens of Auslaw, to any person who may 
safely confine in any jail in this state, a certain negro man, 
named Alfred. The same reward will be paid, if satisfactory 
evidence is given of his having been killed. He has one 
or more scars, caused by his having been shot. 

"The Citizens of Auslaw." 

In the same paper is the following advertisement, offering 
a reward to any one who will murder a husband for 
endeavoring to join his wife: 

"Ran aAvay, my negro man Richard. A reward of $25 
will be paid for his apprehension, dead or alive. Satis- 
factory proof will only be required of his being killed. 
He has with him, in all probability, his wife Eliza, who ran 
away from Colonel Thompson, now a resident of Alabama, 
about the time he commenced his journey to that state. 

"Durant H. Rhodes." 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 323 

From the Macon (Ga.,) Telegraph, May 28, 1838: 

" About the first of March last, the negro man Ransam 
left me, without the least provocation whatever. I will give 
a reward of twenty dollars for said negro, if taken dead or 
alive; and if killed in any attempt, an advance of five 
dollars will be paid. Bryant Johnson. 

" Crawford county, Ga." 

From the Newbern (N. C.) Spectator, January 5, 1838: 

" Ran away from the subscriber, a negro man named 
Sampson. Fifty dollars reward will be given for the delivery 
of him to me, or his confinement in any jail so that I can get 
him ; and should he resist in being taken, so that violence 
is necessary to arrest him, I will not hold any person liable 
for damages should the slave be killed. Enoch Fay." 

" Jones county, JV. C." 

From the Macon (Ga.) Messenger, June 14, 1838 : 

" To the Owners of Runaway JS T eyroes. — A large mulatto 
negro man, between thirty-five and forty years old, about six 
feet in hight, having a high forehead, and hair slightly gray, 
was killed, near my plantation, on the 9th instant. He would 
not surrender, but assaulted Mr. Barnen, who killed him in 
self-defense. If the owner desires further information rela- 
tive to the death of his negro, he can obtain it by letter, or 
by calling on the subscriber, ten miles south of Perry, 
Houston county. Edmund Jas. M'Gehee." 

(8.) The burning of negroes, in the most barbarous man- 
ner, is not very uncommon in slave states. 

April 28, 183G, in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, a black 
man, named M'Intosh, who had stabbed an officer that had 
arrested him, was seized by the multitude, fastened to a tree 
in the midst of the city, in daylight, and in the presence of 
a great throng of citizens, was inhumanly burned to death. 
The Alton (111.) Telegraph describes, as follows, the scene: 
(Sec American Slavery, p. 155-157. New York, 1839.) 



324 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

"All was silent while they were piling wood around their 
victim ; when the flames seized upon him he uttered an 
awful howl, attempted to sing and pray, and then hung his 
head and suffered in silence, except in the following instance : 
After the flames had surrounded their prey, his eyes burnt 
out of his head, and his mouth seemingly parched to a 
cinder, some one in the crowd proposed to put an end to his 
misery by shooting him, when it was replied, ' that would be 
of no use, since he was already out of pain.' 'No, no/ 
said the wretch, ' I am suffering as much as ever ; shoot 
me, shoot me.' ' No, no,' said one, ' he shall not be shot. / 
would sooner slacken the fire, if that would increase his 
misery;' and the man who said this was, as we understand, 

an OFFICER OF JUSTICE." 

The St. Louis correspondent of a New York paper adds: 
" The shrieks and groans of the victim were loud and 
piercing, and to observe one limb after another drop into 
the fire was awful indeed. I visited the place this morning; 
only a part of his head and body was left." 

Hon. Luke E. Lawless, Judge of the Circuit Court of 
Missouri., at its session, in St. Louis, some months after, 
decided that, since the burning of M'Intosh was the act, 
directly or by countenance, of a majority of citizens, it is a 
"case which transcends the jurisdiction of the grand jury !" 

The New Orleans Post, of June 7, 183G, publishes the 
following : 

" We understand that a negro man was lately condemned, 
by the mob, to be burned over a slow fire, which was 
put into execution at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, for murdering 
a black woman and her master." 

" Tuscaloosa, Ala., June 20, 1827. — Last week a Mr. 
M'Neilly charged a slave with theft. M'Neilly and his 
brother seized him, and were about to chastise him, when 
the negro stabbed M'Neilly. The negro was taken before 
a justice, who waived his authority. A crowd collected, and 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 325 

he acted as president of the mob, and put the vote, when it 
was decided he shou]d be immediately burnt to death. He 
was led to the tree, a large quantity of pine knots placed 
around him, the fatal torch applied to the pile, and the 
miserable being was in a short time burned to ashes. This 
is the second negro who has been thus put to death, with- 
out judge or jury, in this county." (African Observer, for 
August, 1827.) 

"The slave William, who murdered his master some 
weeks since, and several negroes, was taken by a party a 
few days since, from the sheriff, at Hot Spring, and burnt 
alive ! yes, tied up to the limb of a tree, a fire built under 
him, and consumed in slow and lingering torture." (Ar- 
kansas Gazette.) 

(9.) But burning slowly to death, either without judge or 
jury, or by mob violence, is far outdone by new and addi- 
tional cruelties, which declare what is the true spirit of 
slavery and its legitimate practices. 

"Aiken, S. C, Dec. 20, 1836. 

" To the Editors or the Constitutionalist, — I have just 
returned from an inquest I held over the dead body of a 
negro man, a runaway, that was shot near the South Edisto, 
in this district, (Barnwell,) on Saturday morning last. He 
came to his death by his own recklessness. He refused to 
be taken alive, and said that other attempts to take him had 
been made, and he was determined that he would not be 
taken. When taken he was nearly naked, had a large dirk, 
or knife, and a heavy club. He was at first — when those 
who were in pursuit of him found it absolutely necessary — 
shot at with small shot, with the intention of merely crip- 
pling him. He was shot at several times, and at last he 
was so disabled as to be compelled to surrender. He kept 
in (lie run of a creek, in a very dense swamp, all the time 
that the neighbors were in pursuit of him. As soon as the 
negro was taken, the best medical aid was procured ; but 

28 



326 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

he died on the same evening. One of the witnesses at the 
inquisition stated that the negro boy said that he was from 
Mississippi, and belonged to so many persons he did not 
know who his master was. But again he said his master's 
name was Brown. He said his own name was Sam ; and 
when asked by another witness who his master was, he mut- 
tered something like Augusta or Augustine. The boy was 
apparently about thirty-five or forty years of age ; about six 
feet high ; slightly yellow in the face ; very long beard or 
whiskers ; and very stout built, and a stern countenance ; 
and appeared to have been runaway a long time. 

"William H. Pritchard, 
" Coroner (ex-officio) Barnivell district, S. C. 

" The Mississippi and other papers will please copy the 
above." (Georgia Constitutionalist.) 

"Execution of the negro Joseph. — The body was taken 
and chained to a tree immediately on the bank of the Mis- 
sissippi, on what is called Union Point. The torches were 
lighted and placed in the pile. He watched, unmoved, the 
curling flame as it grew, till it began to entwine itself 
around and feed upon his body ; then he sent forth cries of 
agony, painful to the ear, begging some one to blow his 
brains out, at the same time struggling with almost super- 
human strength, till the staple with which the chain was" 
fastened to the tree, not being well secured, drew out, and 
he leaped from the burning pile. At that moment the sharp 
ring of several rifles was heard, and the body of the negro 
fell a corpse to the ground. He was picked up by two or 
three, and ao-ain thrown into the fire and consumed." 
(Natchez Free Trader, June 1G, 1842.) 

(10.) Suicidal deaths by negroes, in order to avoid the 
cruelties of slavery, are far from being solitary. A few out 
of the many instances may be given, barely to show the 
murderous workings of the system. 

" Voluntary death. — A colored man, acting as steward on 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 327 

board the Selma, was drowned at New Orleans under the 
following peculiar circumstances. The negro, it seems, was 
a runaway slave, who had, by some means, obtained a set 
of free papers, and, under the character of a free man, had 
been employed on several boats, but lastly on the Selma. 
The owner detected him on the boat, and seized hold of 
him to prevent his escape ; but the negro, after a desperate 
struggle, succeeded in disengaging himself, and running to 
the wheel-house, jumped down into the water, where it is 
believed he voluntarily drowned himself." 

Mr. Rankin, in his Letters, pp. 45-47, gives an account 
of six young African girls, who all hung themselves in 
order to get rid of the cruelties of slavery. 

(11.) The murderous workings of the slave system will 
be further manifested, in surveying that numerous class of 
instances in which slaves, under the views and convictions 
of just retaliation, have murdered their masters. Nor is it 
marvelous, that, both as acts of defense as well as of re- 
venge, they would treat their masters as they themselves 
have been treated. 

In August, 1836, a negro, in Vicksburg, killed his mas- 
ter, because the master, who owned the negro's wife, was 
in the habit of sleeping with her. The negro said he had 
killed his master, and would be rewarded in heaven for 
doing so. The negro, without judge or jury, was inhu- 
manly butchered. (See American Slavery, p. 157.) 

"Murder by a Negro. — Mr. William Avery, overseer of 
the plantation of James M'Connel, in Marshal county, Mis- 
sissippi, was murdered by a negro, on the 29th of May. 
Mr. A. was in the act of correcting the negro's wife, when 
he was knocked down by a bludgeon and beaten to death. 
Mr. A. was a humane and kind overseer, and the character 
of the negro without previous reproach ; he is now in 
Raleigh jail awaiting his certain death." (Memphis paper.) 

"Peter was the slave of Mr. James Douglass, of Dade 



828 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

county, Missouri, who murdered three of his own children 
sooner than leave them in slavery; attempted suicide by 
cutting his own throat, attempted to murder his master, 
and actually murdered his mistress in the spring of 1848. 
Peter was a Baptist preacher of considerable talent. He 
was taken from Kentucky to Tennessee, and from there to 
Missouri, and was several times promised his liberty by his 
master, but the promise was never fulfilled. Peter and his 
wife agreed that it would be better for them and their 
children to be all killed than to be in slavery. At bed- 
time, when seated at the fire, when his wife and children 
were in bed, he was musing on what he should do. His 
wife asked him if he were asleep. He answered, ' No, I 
am not asleep.' His wife said: 'Take up Mark and lay 
him upon the bed with Eli and John, and leave Flem with 
me, and put the children away [kill them] before you go 
yourself.' Peter said, ' You could not bear to see me kill 
the children ?' She answered, ' Yes I could ; and if I make 
any noise or say one word, you may blow me through. 
They will never be any satisfaction to me any way. You 
will be dead, and they will be left here to suffer for it.' At 
this Peter, leaving Flem, the infant, took up Mark, a boy 
about three years of age, and, after kissing him, buried a 
razor in his neck, from the wound of which, after some 
struggles, he died. He then took Eli and John, the one 
eight and the other six years of age, both of whom pleaded 
for their lives. He told them that he himself was going to 
die, and asked them if they would not go with him. Eli 
asked, 'Is ma going too?' His mother replied, 'Yes, ma 
and all are going.' The reply of the mother reconciled the 
children to their fate. The mother assisted in placing the 
two boys side by side, and in tying a bandage around their 
eyes. The father leveled a loaded gun at their heads, at 
the fire of which they both fell ; but not dying as soon 
as desired, he afterward cut their throats. He attempted 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 329 

then to destroy himself with a gun and razor, but failed in 
the attempt. He next killed his mistress and attempted to 
kill his master, on interfering -with his attempts to kill him- 
self and children." (See the Funeral address of the Rev. 
Perry B. Marple, delivered on the occasion of the execution 
of Peter, at Dade Court-House, Mo., May 26, 1848, pp. 
28, octavo.) 

7. Slavery is a violation of the seventh commandment, 
which is, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." 

Slavery places the slaves entirely in the power of their 
masters, to be sold and bought by new masters either in 
their own neighborhood or at a distance. And every 
female slave is completely in the power of her master, of 
his sons, his overseers, and his driver, or, in short, of any 
white man. The law does not allow the female slave to 
offer resistance to any white man, under any circumstances. 
Besides, female virtue on the part of the slave is treated 
with ridicule in a slave community. 

By the separation of man and wife, marriage ties are 
constantly sundered, and new alliances are continually 
formed. The persons separated contract new marriages, 
and so commit adultery. "Whosoever shall put away his 
wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to 
commit adultery; and whosoever shall marry her that is 
divorced, committeth adultery," Matt, v, 32. On the part 
of the man there is separation from the former wife, and 
an adulterous connection with another, thus constituting 
twofold adultery. It is the same with the woman. Hence, 
there is a fourfold adultery. This takes place on every 
new severance and new marriage. Some men, by frequent 
separations, may have several living wives, and some women 
may have several living husbands. 

And when no separations may take place, as above, the 
power of white persons over the slaves places every col- 
ored female slave entirely under the power of the master, 

28* 



330 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

his sons, overseer, or any other white man. Often, too, 
masters are fathers of the colored children of the mother 
and daughters, or even of their own daughters. Brothers 
often have forbidden connection with their own sisters ; to 
say nothing of fathers holding and selling their own chil- 
dren as slaves, and brothers and sisters having brothers 
and sisters for slaves. 

The wealth of some slave states arises principally from 
slave-breeding. It is an object, too, to have young slaves 
as light-colored as possible, because mulatto slaves bring a 
higher price than black slaves ; hence, licentiousness in slave 
states becomes a profitable instead of an expensive sin, as it 
is under other forms of society. Read the following : 

"A Valuable Slave. — A very beautiful girl, belonging 
to the estate of John French, a deceased gambler at New 
Orleans, was sold, a few days since, for the round sum of 
seven thousand dollars. An ugly-looking bachelor, named 
Gouch, a member of the council of one of the municipali- 
ties, was the purchaser. The Picayune says, that the girl 
was a brunette, remarkable for her beauty and intelligence ; 
and that there was considerable contention who should be 
the purchaser. She was, however, persuaded to accept 
Gouch, he having made her princely promises." (New 
York Evening Sun.) 

Case of the Edmondson Sisters. — These were destined 
for the New Orleans market, to be sold as mistresses there. 
Their price was two thousand, two hundred and fifty dol- 
lars, owing to their beauty and youth. After much effort, 
they were redeemed from a life of infamy by the benevo- 
lence of the people of New York principally. The girls 
were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
were destined by their owners for prostitution. 

The process of amalgamation has advanced rapidly in 
the slave states, as white persons are frequently the fathers 
of the children. After a few generations more, if this 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 331 

wicked course be pursued, the colored blood will generally 
disappear. 

The refusal of some conscientious persons to separate 
man and wife, and their laudable endeavors to repress the 
viciousness of slavery, have presented feeble, or rather 
powerless barriers against the general tide of corruption, so 
that its progress is on the advance, rather than on the 
decline. Besides, though such masters should be ever so 
tender of their slaves, during their lifetime, yet, when they 
die without emancipating them, they entail hereditary bond- 
age on them and their posterity forever, with all the aggra- 
vating circumstances of adultery, which necessarily belongs 
to slavery. 

8. Slavery is a violation of the eighth commandment, 
which is, "Thou shalt not steal." 

According to the Larger Catechism of the Westminster 
divines, whose explanation of the ten commandments is, 
perhaps, the most complete in the world, and which is the 
interpretation of the decalogue held by all Presbyterian 
Churches, the following views are given of theft, in defining 
what is enjoined and what is forbidden in the eighth com- 
mandment. Among the duties required are the following: 
"rendering to every man according to his due," Rom. xiii, 
7 ; " restitution of goods unlawfully detained from the right 
owners thereof," Lev. vi, 4, 5. Among the sins forbidden 
in the eighth commandment are the following : " theft, rob- 
bery, man-stealing, and receiving any thing that is stolen." 

Bishop Hopkins, in his "Exposition of the Ten Com- 
mandments," which is as unrivaled, as an exposition, as the 
Larger Catechism is as an explanation, defines theft as 
follows, (p. G8:) "Theft is an unjust taking or keeping to 
ourselves what is lawfully another man's. He is a thief 
who withholds what ought to be in his neighbor's posses- 
sion, as well as he who takes from him what he hath for- 
merly possessed." 



332 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

Slaveholders, by St. Paul, (1 Tim. i, 9, 10,) are called 
man-stealers, or, in other words, the stealers, venders, or 
holders of men as slaves : " Knowing this, that the law is 
not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and diso- 
bedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and 
profane, for murderers of fathers, and murderers of moth- 
ers, for man-slayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile 
themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for 
perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is 
contrary to sound doctrine." 

The Greek word av8parto8i,<3tr ( s — andrapodistes — is from 
avbparto8w — andrapodon — a slave, and Kj-r^t, to stand, mean- 
ing the person who stands over the conquered or subdued 
slave, to steal him, to sell him, or to hold him as a slave. 
Bishop Horsley maintains that the word in the text means 
"a person who deals in men — literally a slave-trader." So 
also Dr. Bloomfield. And that man-stealer, or slave-dealer, 
in guilt and sin, is synonymous with thief, is plain from 
Exodus xxi, 16, where the thief, the vender, or the holder 
of a stolen man is condemned as equally guilty, and to 
be punished with death equally with him who murders a 
man, or with him who strikes or curses his father or his 
mother. 

(1.) Let us analyze the crime of theft, to discover where- 
in its principal point of criminality consists. The chief 
criminality of stealing is not confined to the mere act of 
taking the property of another, which may be lawfully 
done, under peculiar circumstances. The crime of theft 
consists in taking: that which the moral law recognizes as 
another's own, without that individual having forfeited it by 
crime or debt. It amounts to the same, whether a person 
actually takes that which is another man's right, or holds 
in his possession or uses what some other person has taken. 
The possession not only does not justify the original theft 
or fraud, but the principal criminality lies in the possession ; 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 333 

for he who possesses the stolen property prevents the true 
owner from enjoying it. 

The moral law makes no difference between the first act 
of theft and the willful possession of a stolen article, whether 
of goods or persons. " He that stealeth a man and selleth 
him, or if he be found in his hand, shall surely be put 
to death," Ex. xxi, 16. "Whoso is partner with a thief 
hateth his own soul," Prov. xxix, 24. "When thou sawest 
a thief, then thou consentedst with him," Psalm 1, 18. 

On examining slavery, according to the principles con- 
tained in the eighth commandment, we will find, that it 
involves the breach of this commandment, in the most 
palpable and direct manner. According to the Larger 
Catechism it involves "theft, robbery, man-stealing, and 
receiving any thing that is stolen;" or, which is the same, 
according to Bishop Hopkins, "theft is an unjust taking or 
keeping to ourselves what is lawfully another man's. He 
is a thief who withholds what ought to be in his neighbor's 
possession." 

(2.) Men are incapable of becoming the goods and chat- 
tels of another, because all men are naturally free. They 
are, in all circumstances, naturally, and necessarily, and 
rightfully, the owners of themselves; and therefore, no 
man can sell himself; nor can any man purchase a slave, 
except by unjust and fraudulent principles and acts. 

The distinguished Judge Blackstone long since proved 
this point, as may be seen from the following extract from 
his Commentaries, (1 Black. Com., 424 :) "It is said, slavery 
may begin by one man's selling himself to another. It is 
true, a man may sell himself to work for another; but he 
can not sell himself to be a slave, as above defined. Every 
sale implies an equivalent given to the seller, in lieu of what 
he transfers to the buyer; but what equivalent can he give 
for life and liberty ? His property, likewise, with the very 
price which he seems to receive, devolves to his master, the 



334 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

moment he becomes his slave. In this case, therefore, the 
buyer gives nothing. Of what validity, then, can a law be, 
which destroys the very principle on which all sales are 
founded?" 

By the common law, if the consideration of a contract 
fail, the contract is void. Now, were a man to sell himself 
for a slave, the consideration must fail ; for the money or 
other consideration would, as well as the slave himself, 
belong to the master only ; and hence, such sales would be 
void, by common law, (1 Black. Com., 424,) because such 
rights are inalienable. All involuntary sales of men are 
simple acts of high-handed robbery, at common law; and 
such are all sales of slaves in the United States. 

(3.) Slaveholding is robbery. 

It is robbery, because it is an instance of fraud and vio- 
lence without the shadow of justice. It robs the slave of 
intellectual improvement and religious privileges, except at 
the discretion of his master. It robs him of his relatives 
and friends. It robs a man of his liberty, his wages, and 
the right of performing relative duties, both to God 
and man. 

Slavery is an aggravation of the sin of robbery, far beyond 
any other species of robbery. If it be a crime deserving 
corporeal punishment to steal a part of a man's property, it 
must be a greater crime to steal it all, as slavery does. 
Other kinds of robbery commonly deprive a man only of his 
outward substance; but slavery robs him of his soul and 
body — his whole person, by converting the man into a chat- 
tel — a thing — a vendible article — putting him in the market 
for traffic. Common robbery is a mere transient act ; but 
this is perpetual, or while the sufferer lives. As the slave- 
holder takes away the liberty of the slave and his labor 
without wages, he must be the worst of all robbers, as he 
by violence takes away soul, body, liberty, property, and all 
those rights of duty which the slave owes both to God and 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 335 

man. A real slaveholder can have no more right to hon- 
esty or good moral character than the worst swindlers, 
thieves, or robbers. 

According to the common law, slavery is the highest 
species of robbery. It is as much worse than common 
robbery, as all the natural rights put together are more 
valuable than personal goods and chattels. Common rob- 
bery by the common law is defined, "the taking of goods 
and chattels from the person of another, by putting him in 
fear." (4 Blackstone's Com., 264.) Slavery is robbery 
of the highest kind, for it takes from its victims all their 
security, liberty, property, and other rights, by putting and 
keeping the slaves in fear. At common law, slaveholders 
are criminals of different kinds and in various degrees. 
Thousands of them are felons deserving of capital punish- 
ment, for the crimes of rape, robbery, mayhem, and murder, 
committed on innocent persons, as they are accessories to 
these crimes. (Vid. 4 Blackstone's Com., 195, 206, 210, 
etc.) 

(4.) Slavery is theft. There is certainly great relevancy 
in applying the terms thief, man-stealer, or kidnapper, to the 
holder of men as slaves. On the coast of Africa, men are 
made slaves by open robbery. In America they are en- 
slaved, or stolen away from their parents, by the arts of 
secrecy; though secrecy is not an essential element in the 
guilt of theft, it is an almost inseparable adjunct. And 
slaveholders attach the utmost importance to the secrecy 
with which they perpetrate the crime. They employ the 
most sleepless vigilance to keep the slaves ignorant of 
their rights, being persuaded that if the slaves were enlight- 
ened they could not be retained in bondage. The very 
education of the slave consists principally in increasing his 
ignorance. Hundreds of thousands of the slaves drudge 
on till death, unconscious of their proper manhood, thus 
furnishing the most complete instance of man-stealing. 



336 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

Their very wills are stolen. If the slaves could all know 
their own rights and powers, they would soon be relieved 
from slavery. 

It seems hard, too, we acknowledge, to call slaveholders 
by the names of thieves, robbers, and man-stealers, espe- 
cially as many of them are enlightened and refined persons. 
We do not deny, indeed, that many slaveholders are enlight- 
ened, refined, or even pious persons ; but if they steal men, 
or hold and use the stolen men or infants, and possess the 
good qualities attributed to them, then they are simply 
enlightened, refined, and pious men-stealers. A man's 
good character may come in as probable evidence against 
a charge of crime while the fact is in doubt, but after the 
fact is demonstrated or confessed, the argument of good 
character is too late. The fact of slaveholding is here con- 
fessed, and this points out the thief or man-stealer. And 
while men hold slaves as property, no other terms will as 
well express their real character as man-stealer, thief, slave- 
holder, slave-dealer, or the like. And such are the very 
words which the Holy Ghost employs in both the Old and 
New Testaments, to designate the true character of him 
who makes merchandise of men, whether as the original 
thief, the vender, buyer, or retainer of the stolen man. 

He that by the act of another, whether of an individual 
or a legislature, becomes the legal possessor of a slave, and 
retains him as stolen property, with the intention now of 
restoring him to his liberty, and then carrying out this 
holy purpose, is not chargeable as a thief; any more than 
the man is who receives the stolen horse, and retains him, 
not as his own, but in safe-keeping till he can put the proper 
owner in possession of him. 

Can any slave conclude in his mind differently from 
the following, from the Life of William Brown, p. 13, ut- 
tered by himself, on commencing his narrative: "I was 
born in Lexington, Kentucky. The man who stole me as 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 33*7 

soon as I was born, recorded the birth of all the infants, 
whom he claimed to be born as his property, in a book 
which he kept for that purpose." 

We know that slaveholders are very much displeased to 
be called by the names, by which holy Scripture designates 
them, such as thieves, man-stealers, etc. If so, then let 
them take the only remedy for the disgrace, which was 
given by an apostle: "Let him that stole steal no more, 
but rather let him labor," etc. Let the slaveholder set the 
slave free, and betake himself to honest labor ; and then no 
one will call him by these names, as they would then mean 
just nothing. 

(5.) Slaveholding, in Scripture, is expressly called theft: 
"And [they] sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty 
pieces of silver; and they brought Joseph into Egypt," 
Gen. xxxvii, 28. "For indeed I was stolen away out of 
the land of the Hebrews," Gen. xl, 15. These two pas- 
sages collated show that slavery is theft, and he that sells or 
buys one man from a third person is a thief. 

Again : " If a man be found stealing any of his brethren 
of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, 
or selleth him, then that thief shall die, and thou shalt put 
away evil from among thee," Deut. xxxiv, 7. Here, he 
who steals, makes merchandise of, or sells a man, is ex- 
pressly called a thief. 

(6.) Holy Scripture places equally in the same general 
class of criminals, all who steal, sell, 'purchase, or hold as a 
slave, a human being. 

" He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be 
found in his hand, he shfHl surely be put to death," Ex. 
xxi, 16. Here death, the highest punishment, is awarded 
against the person who held the stolen man, as well as 
against him who originally stole him, or subsequently 
bought or sold him. 

The following is the excellent comment of Jarchi, the 

20 



338 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

distinguished Jewish commentator, on this passage : " Using 
a man against his will, as a servant lawfully purchased, 
yea, though he should use his services ever so little, only 
to the value of a farthing, or use but his arm to lean on to 
support him, if he be forced so to act as a servant, the 
person compelling him but once to do so, shall die as a 
thief, whether he has sold him or not." 

The admirable note on the one hundred and forty-second 
question of the Larger Catechism of the Presbyterian 
Church, was inserted by authority of the General Assem- 
bly in 1794, by their committee, Dr. A. Green, John B. 
Smith, James Boyd, Wm. M. Tennant, N. Irwin, and An- 
drew Hunter. The note is as just and philological now as it 
was when inserted, although the slaveholders could not 
endure it, and, therefore, procured its rejection: "1 Tim. i, 
10. The law is made for man- stealers. This crime, among 
the Jews, exposed the perpetrators of it to capital punish- 
ment, (Ex. xxi, 16,) and the apostle classes them with sin- 
ners of the first rank. The word he uses, in its original 
import, comprehends all who are concerned in bringing any 
of the human race into slavery, or retaining them in it. 
Hominum fures qui servos vel libcros abducunt, retinent, ven- 
dunt, vel emunt. Stealers of men are all those who bring 
off slaves or freemen, and keep, sell, or buy them. To steal 
a man, says Grotius, is the highest kind of theft. In other 
instances we only steal human property ; but when we steal 
or retain men in slavery, we seize those who, in common 
with ourselves, are constituted, by the original grant, lords 
of the earth. (Genesis i, 28. Vide Poll Synopsim in 
loco.") 

(1.) The Mosaic law on man-stealing, (Ex. xxi, 16,) is 
recognized and resanctioned in the New Testament by St. 
Paul : " The law is not made for the righteous man, but for 
men-stealers," 1 Tim. i, 9, 10. There is no more innocent 
way of making slaves, than by stealing free persons for this 



TKE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 339 

purpose. Hence, the law against slavery forbids alike every 
other method of making slaves of innocent persons. If 
men were held under the Mosaic law as property, or slaves, 
why was not the stealing of a slave punished by obliging 
the thief to restore four or more slaves? The truth is, 
slave-stealing was not known to the Mosaic law, because 
slaveholding was by that law a capital crime. The servitude 
under the law was a voluntary one on the part of the 
servant, and a requited service on the part of the master. 
Those who were bought, whether Jews or heathen, were 
bought of themselves; and what they sold was not the 
ownership of themselves and their posterity forever, but of 
their own labor, for a longer or shorter time ; and the 
long;est time the law allowed was forty-nine years. 

(8.) Slavery is a breach of the eighth commandment, ac- 
cording to the best interpreters ; and we know of none 
better than those whom we have already selected — Bishop 
Hopkins, and the Westminster Assembly. 

Bishop Hopkins, in his exposition, (p. 68,) says: " Theft 
is an unjust taking or keeping to ourselves what is lawfully 
another man's. He is a thief who withholds what ought to 
be in his neighbor's possession, as well as he who takes from 
him what he hath formerly possessed." Now slavery takes 
from a man what is justly his own, as his body, his labor, 
liberty, etc. It is therefore theft; and as the slaveholder 
withholds what ought to be in his neighbor's possession, he 
is therefore, in the eye of this commandment, a thief. 

"The highest [kind of theft] is committed against God by 
sacrilege. Now sacrilege is alienating from God whatsoever 
he has appropriated to himself, or dedicated to his honor 
and service." (P. 71.) Now slavery has alienated from 
God his sovereign control over his creature ; therefore, 
slavery is sacrilege. 

"One kind of theft is oppression, and unreasonaole 
exaction ; and this especially is the sin of superiors toward 



340 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

their inferiors, taking advantage either of their weakness or 
their necessity, to impose unequal conditions upon them, and 
such as they can not bear 'without their detriment or ruin, 
contrary to that law which God gave his people." (Lev. 
xxv, 14 ; Hopkins, p. '12.) The application of the above to 
slavery is easy. 

(9.) Indeed, the great wickedness of holding property in 
man is so manifest, that God punished either the stealing, 
or trading, or holding man as property, with a rigor beyond 
that of any other kind of theft. Death was the punishment 
for stealing a man, or for dealing in the stolen property, 
either as a seller, a purchaser, or a holder. The simple 
ground, therefore, on which slavery is to be placed, is, that 
it is, of itself, a crime of the greatest enormity, besides the 
parent of innumerable other crimes. It is an outrage on 
every principle of humanity and justice, and a flagrant 
violation of the spirit and precepts of Christianity. There- 
fore, nothing remains to be done by a Christian government, 
but to pronounce its immediate and utter extinction, accom- 
panying the measure with wise and just precautions. 

(10.) Some examples, or cases, of actual theft might be 
given, to show how deeply slavery is involved in theft and 
robbery. 

We quote the following from the " Report on the Free 
People of Color of Ohio," as a specimen of kidnapping, 
very common among slaveholders. It is copied in the Anti- 
slavery Record, vol. iii, p. 76. 

"Mary Brown, another colored girl who was kidnapped in 
1830, was the daughter of free parents in Washington City. 
She lived with her parents till the death of her mother; she 
was then seized and sold. The following are the facts as 
she stated them. One day when near the Potomac bridge, 
Mr. Humphreys, the sheriff, overtook her, and told her that 
she must go with him. She inquired of him, what for? 
He made no reply, but told her to come along. He took 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 341 

her immediately to a slave auction. Mary told Mr. Hum- 
phreys that she was free, but he contradicted her, and the 
sale went on. The auctioneer soon found a purchaser, and 
struck her off for three hundred and fifty dollars. Her 
master was a Mississippi trader, and she was immediately 
taken to the jail. After a few hours, Mary was handcuffed, 
chained to a man slave, and started in a drove of about 
forty for New Orleans. Pier handcuffs made her wrists 
swell so that they were obliged to take them off at night, 
and put fetters on her ankles. In the morning her hand- 
cuffs were again put on. Thus they traveled for two weeks, 
wading rivers, and whipped up all day, and beaten at night, 
if they did not get their distance. Mary says that she 
frequently waded rivers in her chains, with water up to her 
waist. It was in October, and the weather cold and frosty. 
After traveling thus twelve or fifteen days, her arms and 
ankles became so swollen that she felt that she could go no 
farther. Blisters would form on her feet as large as dollars, 
which at night she would have to open, while all day the 
shackles would cut into her lacerated wrists. They had no 
beds, and usually slept in barns, or out on the naked ground ; 
was in such misery when she lay down that she could only 
lie and cry all night. Still they drove them on for another 
week. Her spirits became so depressed, and she grieved so 
much about leaving her friends, that she could not eat, and 
every time the trader caught her crying, he would beat her, 
accompanying it with dreadful curses. The trader would 
whip and curse any of them whom he found praying. One 
evening he caught one of the men at prayer; he took him, 
lashed him down to a parcel of rails, and beat him dread- 
fully. He told Mary that if he caught her praying he 
would give her hell ! (Mary was a member of the Methodist 
Church in Washington.) There were a number of pious 
people in the company, and at night, when the driver found 
them melancholy, and disposed to pray, he would have a 

29* 



342 THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 

fiddle brought, and make them dance in their chains. It 
mattered not how sad or weary they were, he would whip 
them till they would do it. 

"Mary at length became so weak that she could travel no 
further. Her feeble frame was exhausted and sunk beneath 
her accumulated sufferings. She was seized with a burning 
fever, and the trader, fearing he should lose her, carried her 
the remainder of the way in a wagon. 

" When they arrived at Natchez, they were all offered for 
sale, and as Mary was still sick, she begged that she might 
be sold to a kind master.. She would sometimes make this 
request in presence of purchasers, but was always insulted 
for it, and after they were gone the trader would punish her 
for such presumption. On one occasion he tied her up by 
her hands, so that she could only touch the end of her toes 
to the floor. This was soon after breakfast ; he kept her 
thus suspended, whipping her at intervals through the day ; 
at evening he took her down. She was so much bruised, 
that she could not lie down for more than a week afterward. 
He often beat and choked her for another purpose, till she 
was obliged to yield to his desires. . 

" She was at length sold to a wealthy man of Vicksburg, 
at four hundred and fifty dollars, for a house servant. But 
he had another object in view. He compelled her to gratify 
his licentious passions, and had children by her. This was 
the occasion of so much difficulty between him and his 
wife, that he has now sent her up to Cincinnati to be free." 

9. Slaveholding is contrary to the ninth commandment, 
which says : " Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy 
neighbor." This commandment requires the maintaining of 
truth between man and man. But slaveholding prevents the 
slaves from bearing testimony before any court in their own 
defense, or in the cause of any other person, in clearing the 
innocent or condemning the guilty. 

10. Slavery is contrary to the tenth commandment, which 



THE DECALOGUE AGAINST SLAVERY. 343 

says, " Thou shalt not covet." By the law of God, every 
person, under God, is his own owner; the owner of his 
body, limbs, and faculties ; the owner of his own time, 
industry, strength, and skill ; the owner of his wife and 
children ; the owner of his own rights, his security, his 
liberty, his property, etc. ; and all as the gift of God to him, 
and to none other. Now, slavery usurps all these — first 
covets them, and then seizes them — and it is, therefore, a 
breach of the tenth commandment. 

11. Slavery is against all just laws, human and divine. 

That it is contrary to the moral law, has been abundantly 
shown. The Gospel contains the great constitutional prin- 
ciples of right, and not mere statutory enactments. It 
proclaims great general rules, adapted to particular cases, 
public and private. The mere names of sins may not be 
mentioned — for the names of many are recent — but then the 
principles, or elementary character of these sins, are very 
clearly pointed out. A great many vicious practices are not 
condemned by name in Scripture, such as counterfeiting, 
forgery, arson, theatres, gambling, piracy, etc. So slavery 
in modern phrase may not be mentioned ; yet all that was 
pronounced against the slavery of Joseph, the Hebrews in 
Egypt, and others in the old Testament, is confirmed in the 
new; and principles and practices inculcated which could 
never originate slavery, and which, if applied, would soon 
destroy it in the United States where it exists, as it has 
done already in other states and other countries. 



344 CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 



CHAPTER V. 

SLAVERY CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 

The principles, claims, and legal practice of slavery, are 
antagonistic to the principles, dispositions, claims, and prac- 
tices of pure Christianity. In the support of this, we fur- 
nish the following : 

1. The right, such as the master claims over the slave, is 
never acknowledged in the word of God. No such right is 
recognized by the Mosaic institutions , so that the master, 
Avithout the consent of the servant, could exact services from 
him, prevent him from marriage, break up his family by 
sale, etc. 

In the New Testament servants are exhorted to obey 
their masters. (Eph. vi, 5-8; Col. iii, 22-24 ; 1 Tim. vi, 1 ; 
Tit. ii, 9, 10; 1 Pet. ii, 18-25.) The reasons for obedience 
are such as these: that servants may please God ; that they 
may receive from him the reward of the inheritance ; that 
the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemed ; 
that they may adorn the doctrine of God, their Savior, in 
all things ; that they may imitate the patience of Christ, etc. 
In no place is the master's right of property in them 
adduced as a reason for the obedience of a slave. Nor is 
the obedience of a slave enjoined on any of those who are 
called servants. Where are such rights recognized as to 
sell a fellow-man ; to buy him from another ; to use or treat 
him as an article of merchandise ; to rob him of his children, 
his wife, and all his goods ; to prevent him from worshiping 
God, improving his mind ? These assumed rights of the 
slaveholders are sought in vain from the beginning of the 
Old Testament to the conclusion of the new. 

2. The absolute power of the master is utterly repugnant 
to the spirit of Christianity. That one man should be the 



CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 345 

absolute proprietor of his fellow, and the arbiter of his des- 
tinies, not only to shut him out from the enjoyment of all 
the blessings of Providence, but from the higher blessings 
of Christian light and knowledge, so as almost to destroy 
his moral responsibility — the attribute which distinguishes 
man from the brute, while it allies him to God — is re- 
pugnant to Christianity. Is it possible that a slave, under 
the despotic authority of his master, should be a morally- 
responsible being, in the same sense in which we are 
responsible beings ? Will any one deny that it is repugnant 
to Christianity, that one human being, at the will of a 
fellow-man, should be liable to have all the finest feelings of 
his heart outraged, without the probability of redress; 
that he should be liable to be torn and forever separated 
from the society of his wife and children ; that he should be 
liable to have his body lacerated with the bloody scourge, 
without daring to utter the slightest murmur or complaint, 
on account of the barbarous infliction ? 

It makes very little difference, in estimating the evil of 
slavery, that there may be many slaveholders who are mild 
and merciful masters, who have the interests of the slaves 
at heart, and are anxious to ameliorate their condition. All 
this can not rectify the incurable evils of the system ; these 
are beyond the reach of individual benevolence. But, after 
ascribing all that can be ascribed to humane, pious, and 
religious individuals, it is impossible to contemplate, without 
indignation, a system by which the subjects of it may be 
ivmedilessly wronged in every way in which it is possible 
for one man to wrong his fellow ; and may be made to 
sustain, in addition to all the numberless vexations, and 
nameless aggravations which the details of every day may 
bring with it, injuries of the severest and most lasting kinds, 
without the hope or possibility of redress. 

3. Slavery and the light diffused by Christianity arc 
directly at variance. On this point we quote the admirable 



346 CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 

speech of Rev. Richard Watson, delivered April 23, 1831, 
in Exeter Hall, London, as follows : 

"It has been said that Christian instruction should be 
employed, in order to prepare the slaves for the enjoyment of 
freedom, after some very long period has elapsed. Now, in, 
his (Mr. Watson's) opinion, it was impossible to spread 
Christianity through the mass of the slave population so long 
as it continues in slavery. Christianity had indeed had some 
noble triumphs in the West Indies, but few, comparatively, 
among field negroes; and this was the great objection to 
the system. Legislators might give them Sabbaths, but 
they would be robbed of them practically, for there was a 
power in every planter greater than the power of the British 
government itself. Christian zeal might multiply mission- 
aries, and yet none of these missionaries could enter an 
estate without leave from the owner to instruct his slaves ; 
the consequence was that a variety of obstacles were con- 
tinually thrown in the way of the diffusion of Christianity 
throughout the population at large. But even if it were 
possible to extend Christianity throughout the mass of the 
population, those persons who imagined that it would make 
the slaves quiet and content with slavery were greatly mis- 
taken. [Hear, hear.] Christianity would make better ser- 
vants, but worse slaves. It creates honesty, industry, and 
conscientiousness ; but it can not create them without the 
love of freedom. Slavery was felt to be an evil most 
deeply by the man who had been brought under the in- 
fluence of Christianity. [Cheers.] By religion the mind 
becomes enlightened, the sensibilities acute and tender, and 
the social relations more united and strengthened. Would a 
Christian father then endure it as well as a Pagan father, 
that his children should be separated from him ; that his 
daughters, whom he had educated in virtue, should be 
subdued for pollution by the influence of the whip, a thing 
most general throughout the slave colonies ; and if the whip 



CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 34*7 

be employed, not merely to cut the flesh, but to cut 
deeper — to separate the marriage ties? Was it possible 
that Christianity should teach a man to tolerate such things 
as these? There was no libel, so gross, as that Christianity 
could be made the instrument of defending such an outrage. 
Our religion was not a religion to teach slaves to kiss their 
chains, but a religion to teach freemen how to use their 
freedom." (See London Antislavery Reporter, vol. iv, 
p. 227.) 

4. Nothing can be more directly contrary to the whole 
spirit of Christianity than the inhuman and horrible system 
of slavery. If one act of injustice, willfully committed, is 
inconsistent with the character of a Christian, what must 
be ten thousand such acts ? If one injured and oppressed 
fellow-creature cries against us for redress to the Father of 
mercies, and cries not in vain, what will not the cries of 
thousands effect ? If an occasional deed of cruelty, prompt- 
ed by passion, is a provocation, in the eyes of God, not to 
be overlooked, what must a cool, deliberate system of cru- 
elty be, in the estimation of God ? If crimes, affecting the 
health or property of another, be a breach of the Divine 
commandments, what must be the injuries affecting the 
liberty, the whole future well-being, the family, the children 
of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and 
children consigned to hopeless slavery ? 

5. The dispositions and feelings enjoined on Christians, 
and exercised by them, are at variance with slavery. 

Christians were commanded thus : "Love not the world, 
neither the things that are in the world. If any man love 
the world, the love of the Father is not in him," 1 John ii, 
15 ; "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the 
friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever, 
therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of 
God," James iv, 4. Hence, those who had possessions 
sold them, and divided their proceeds, " as every man had 



348 CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 

need," Acts ii, 44, 45. Those who had practiced unlawful 
acts forsook them, at a great pecuniary sacrifice. (Acts xix, 
18-20.) Hence, this benevolence utterly forbids oppression, 
in every form, and of course the oppressions of slavery. 

Besides, there always was, and still is, the leveling spirit 
in Christianity. Christians were baptized into one, homo- 
geneous body. (1 Cor. xii, 12, 13.) Invidious distinctions 
were abolished by the Gospel. As many as were baptized 
into Christ became the SovTioi, — servants — not slaves of God. 
There was neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free among 
them. These and other distinctions of the same kind were 
merged into the comprehensive relations of Christians. 
(Gal. iii, 26-28.) Hence, it is beautifully said by the apos- 
tle, "Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is 
exalted, but the rich in that he is made low," James i, 9, 10. 

6. Indeed, the very principles of Christ's kingdom are op- 
posed to slavery. (Matt, xx, 25-28.) The principle of the 
kingdom is benevolence. The subjects are required to serve 
each other according to their respective abilities and neces- 
sities. All despotic domination is forbidden in Christianity. 
And all relations not consistent with this Christian rule are 
forbidden: "It shall not be so among you." It were easy 
to show that the leading principles inculcated in the above 
passage, and others like it, are in direct opposition to slavery. 

7. Hence, the brotherhood of Christianity is at variance 
with slavery. All Christians were to be regarded as breth- 
ren. " One is your master, {x^Oriy^tr^ — leader,] and all ye 
are brethren," Matt, xxiii, 8. This is the uniform lan- 
imaire of the New Testament. There is nothing to hinder its 
proper use when the rich address the poor, or princes their 
subjects, or preachers their people; but there is much to 
prevent its use when applied by masters to their slaves, or 
of slaves to their masters. To apply the terms brethren 
and sisters to those who are slaves is a departure from all 
just language. 



CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 349 

The case of Demarara will exemplify this. It was found 
in that island, that the progress of Christianity was likely 
to become dangerous to the slave system, and therefore, it 
became a serious object, not to extinguish slavery, but to 
expel Christianity. In 1808 the Royal Demarara Gazette 
promulgated this doctrine : " He that chooses to make 
slaves Christians, let him give them their liberty. What 
will be the consequence, when to that class of men is given 
the title of beloved brethren, which actually is done! 
Assembling negroes in places of public worship gives a 
momentary feeling of independence, both of thinking and 
acting ; and by frequent meetings of this kind a spirit of 
remark is generated ; neither of which are sensations at all 
proper to be excited in the minds of slaves." Again, in 
1823, the same paper says, "To address a promiscuous 
audience of black or colonial people, bond and free, by the 
endearing appellation of 'my brethren and sisters,' is what 
can no where be heard but in Providence Chapel." " Can 
you make your negroes Christians, and use the words 'dear 
brother ' or ' sister ' to those you hold in bondage ? They 
would conceive themselves, by possibility, put on a level 
with yourselves, and the chains of slavery would be 
broken." It is not to be inferred, however, that Demarara 
formally abandoned Christianity; for they only rejected 
that kind of Christianity which came in opposition to sla- 
very. In 1696 Jamaica passed an act in which it was de- 
clared that every slave should be educated and instructed 
in the Christian religion. In 1831 they renewed that act. 
Yet they confessed that, for over a hundred years together, 
nothing efficient was done to promote Christianity ; for they 
found that the true brotherhood of Christianity would, in 
the end, ruin their slavery. 

8. Slavery will not admit of prayer for its support; 
therefore, it must be sinful. 

Prayer is offering up our desires to God, for things agree- 

30 



350 CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 

able to his will, in the name of Christ, with thankful ac- 
knowledgment of his mercies. The things asked in prayer 
should, in their nature, be lawful. But there is no precept 
in the moral law that will make it lawful to steal the prop- 
erty of another, or rob him of his possessions. But the 
liberty, the labor, the wife, the children, are his property. 
It would be blasphemy to suppose there could be a prom- 
ise in God's word that would secure his blessing to acts of 
theft and robbery. There is, therefore, not a promise in 
the Bible for a slaveholder to plead upon for strength and 
grace to assist him in the practices of slaveholding, such 
as stealing men, women, and children — purchasing stock 
negroes — selling off surplus ones to the drivers — distribu- 
ting families by will among heirs — whipping the disobedi- 
ent — transporting by private sales the refractory — separa- 
ting the married, etc. 

It would be difficult, indeed, to find many examples of 
persons deliberately praying to God, for Christ's sake, to 
assist them in forcibly restraining their neighbors from 
enjoying freedom, and to enable them to exact their labor 
without wages. Still, many cases might be given in which 
religious devotions mifjht be connected with the cruelest 
treatment toward slaves. 

But, if slaveholding be right, and therefore a duty, the 
master is bound to pray to God for grace and wisdom to 
enable him to fulfill his duty, according to the true nature 
and tendency of the practice. 

We have, in our reading, selected several prayers, de- 
voutly offered up to God in behalf of the slave, some of 
which we will transcribe, for the benefit of those who may 
be disposed to pray for the liberation of those in bondage. 
The following is the devout prayer of the Rev. John Wes- 
ley, found in the conclusion of his " Thoughts on Slavery," 
which were published in 1*774: 

"0, thou God of love! thou who art loving to every 



CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 351 

man, and whose mercies are over all thy works ! thou who 
art the Father of the spirits of all flesh, and who art rich in 
mercy to all! thou who hast made of one blood all the 
nations upon earth ! have compassion upon these outcasts of 
men, who are trodden down as dung upon the earth ! Arise, 
and help those that have no helper ! whose blood is spilt 
upon the ground like water ! Are these, also, not the works 
of thine own hands? the purchase of thy Son's blood? 
Stir them up to cry to thee, in the land of their captiv- 
ity; and let their complaint come up before thee! Let it 
enter into thy ears ! Make even those that lead them away 
captive to pity them, and turn their captivity as the rivers 
in the south ! O, burst thou all their chains in sunder, more 
especially the chains of their sins! Savior of all, make 
them free, that they may be free indeed ! 

The servile progeny of Ham 
Seize, as the purchase of thy blood ! 

Let all the heathens know thy name, 
From idols to the living God ! 

The dark Americans convert, 

And shine in every Pagan's heart !" 

(Wesley's Works, vol. vi, p. 293.) 

The Rev. James O'Kelley, in his "Essay on Negro Sla- 
very," published in Philadelphia, 1789, devoutly concludes 
his Essay as follows : 

" 0, dear Jesus ! let beams dart from thy benevolent eyes 
into the hearts of our countrymen, and soften their spirits ! 
Disperse, dispel the thick, gloomy cloud of errors, lest all 
innocent blood of those people fall from first to last upon 
this generation! We are pained at small matters. We 
strain at gnats, while camels choke us not." 

The Rev. Daniel Wilson, vicar of Islington, in a sermon 
preached October 31, 1830, on slavery, concludes with the 
following prayer : 

"And do thou be pleased, 0, God of mercy! to look 
upon us as a nation ! Do thou move the hearts of the people 



352 CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 

as the heart of one man! Do thou touch us with com- 
punction ! Do thou permit us to repair this mighty injus- 
tice, before thou smitest us for our refusal to do so ! Do 
thou permit and enable us to break the chains of our bond- 
age, ere thou burst them in thine indignation! Do thou 
assist us to rise above all difficulties, and to resist all temp- 
tations to delay, and to set a pattern of justice, at length, 
to that world which we have been injuring by our example 
of selfishness and cruelty! Do thou enable us to make 
what compensation we can to the oppressed negro race, for 
the long wrongs we have done them ! 

" Suffer us not to go on in our provocations of thy Divine 
majesty! Give us not over, as thou justly mightest, to 
hardness of heart ! Let us not refuse, like Pharaoh of old, 
to let the people go, till thy vengeance is uplifted against 
us — till thou sendest confusion into our councils, a blight 
upon all our prosperity, war in our borders, ruin in our 
national concerns, despair and death in our land ! 

" Let us yet — 0, let us, by thy mercy, be still the people 
of thy pasture ! Let truth and righteousness abound 
among us ! Let us set the captives free, and nobly trust 
to thee, in following the path of duty. Let thy Gospel 
yet flourish among us ! Let our Church enjoy thy benedic- 
tion! Let our nation be still the glory of the reformed 
countries — the herald of liberty, and peace, and social 
order, and religion to the neighboring states — the messenger 
of grace to the Jew and Gentile — the dispenser of happi- 
ness and salvation to mankind ! And then to thy name, thy 
mercy, thy long-suffering, thy power, thy grace, .shall be 
the praise forever and ever, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord!" 

The Rev. Joseph Ivimey, in a lecture on slavery delivered 
April 11, 1832, concludes with the following prayer: 

"Merciful Father of the human race! thou sittest upon 
thy throne, judging right! thy way is in the sea, and thy 



CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 353 

footsteps are not known; clouds and darkness are round 
about thee; judgment and justice are the habitation of thy 
throne. Thou makest the wrath of man to praise thee, 
and the remainder thereof thou wilt restrain. We would 
adore the sovereignty of thy inscrutable conduct in regard 
to the misery which thou hast righteously permitted to 
exist, not doubting but that the Judge of the whole earth 
will do right ; and firmly believing that thou wilt make the 
most afflictive events subserve the accomplishments of thy 
merciful purposes, in the universal spread of thy Gospel, 
and the ultimate salvation of the whole body of thine elect 
people. Why withdrawest thou thy hand? pluck it out 
of thy bosom. Remember the covenant, for the dark places 
of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. O, let 
not the oppressed return ashamed ! Let the poor and needy 
praise thy name. Arise, Lord, plead thine own cause. 
Remember how the foolish man reproveth thee daily. O 
that the Father of the universe may, in compassion, arise 
and set the enslaved neoro free !" 

O 

We sometimes sing a hymn, in which there is this ex- 
pressive verse : 

" Let the Indian — let the negro — 
Let the rude barbarian see 
That divine and glorious conquest, 
Once obtained on Calvary; 

And redemption, 
Freely purchased, win the day." 

As an example of the opposition between slavery and 
prayer, we may quote the case of the Rev. Mr. Brisbane, 
who was banished South Carolina for praying for liberty 
and emancipating his slaves. The Charleston Mercury thus 
records the proceedings of a meeting held at Lawtonville, 
Feb. 8, 1848, respecting Mr. Brisbane: 

"About four years since he visited this section of coun- 
try., and, after his return north, gave a garbled and false 
statement of his sojourn here, endeavoring to make capital 

30* 



354 CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 

for himself by recounting the great personal risks he en- 
countered in appearing among us ; when, unfortunately for 
ourselves, he was permitted to remain and depart unmo- 
lested, after having settled his personal and private business, 
having made no public demonstration of himself or his 
abolition principles. But during his present sojourn he has 
had the audacity to show himself in one of our pulpits, 
alluding to his estrangement from his native place not being 
the result of choice but of necessity — a necessity brought 
about by the force of conscience — there insulting us with 
the prayer that universal liberty might soon prevail. 

" In consideration of these facts, and reffardino; him as we 
do to be an enemy to his country, a traitor to the south, 
and particularly dangerous to this section, where he has 
the sympathy of the slaves, having liberated a part of his 
own here, we think he should not be permitted to rest 
among us. Therefore, be it 

"Resolved, That a committee of three wait on Rev. Wm. 
H. Brisbane, M. D., instanter, and warn him to leave the 
state in forty-eight hours, or abide the consequences from 
a hitherto patient but now indignant community. 

"Resolved, That, if the committee find Mr. Brisbane un- 
willing to depart, they wait upon the chairman and secre- 
tary, who are charged with disseminating the information 
so as to call the people together at an early day." 

9. The penalty by which slavery is punished, declares it 
to be a crime of the first magnitude, equal to murder, 
striking or reviling a parent, and the like. "He that curseth 
his father or his mother, shall surely be put to death. He 
that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in 
his hand, he shall surely be put to death. He that curseth 
his father or his mother shall surely be put to death," Ex. 
xxi, 15-17. The same penalty is pronounced in Deut. 
xxiv, 7 : " If a man be found stealing any of his brethren 



CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 355 

of the children of Israel, and niaketh merchandise of him, 
or selleth him, then that thief shall die." The crime here 
is, stealing a man, selling him, making merchandise of him, 
or holding him, which is neither more nor less than hold- 
ing human beings in slavery. This crime is equal in atroc- 
ity to murder, striking or reviling a 'parent, or the like. 
Therefore, slavery is a sin of the first magnitude, by this 
decision of God. 

10. In short, slavery is a barrier to the progress of civiliza- 
tion, education, and Christianity. On this head we present 
the following, from a paper read by Rev. William Bevan 
before the Antislavery Convention held in London in June, 
1840: 

"A system so founded in injustice, so reared in irreligion, 
so consummated in enormity, opposes a fearful barrier to 
the progress of civilization, education, and Christianity. In 
every operation on the character of the enslaver and the 
enslaved, it accelerates the downward movement of de- 
pravity and misery. The Christian Church is brought to 
the conviction, that only in the diffusion of the blessings of 
education and religion, will civilization advance, and these 
are withheld. To retain the slave as a chattel, a mere 
animated machine, the intelligent principle within him must 
be crippled and fettered. It can never be destroyed. 
Hence the restrictions on means of instruction, and the 
penal sanctions by which they are enforced. Above all, 
the spirit of Christianity is restrained. 

"Slavery decrees that the word of the Lord shall not 
have free course. The two can not walk through the land 
together, for they are not agreed. If the Gospel be 
triumphant, slavery must fall. That slavery may continue 
in despotic might, the truth of God must be bound. They 
are diametrically and unalterably opposed. Slavery con- 
sorts with the demon of pollution; the Gospel breathes the 



356 CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 

spirit of purity. Slavery seeks an asylum in the thick dark- 
ness; the Gospel is the emanation of pure and heavenly 
light. Slavery denies to man the prerogatives of reason 
and conscience; the Gospel illuminates his mind, purifies 
the conscience and sets it free. Slavery debases and curses 
his being; the Gospel ennobles and blesses him with a 
renewed and celestial nature. Slavery plunges him into 
unmitigated distress and despair; the Gospel elevates him 
to joy and hope. Slavery draws a vail over the relation 
of life and immortality; the Gospel confers the free and 
glorious title to the life everlasting. The outbreakings of 
the evil genius of the system have ever been characterized 
by unrelenting animosity to the religion of Jesus. It has 
razed the Christian sanctuary — it has committed to the 
flames the oracles of God — it has satiated its thirst with 
the blood of the saints. To gather the broken in heart to 
the ministry of consolation, is rebellion against its majesty; 
to announce the opening of the prison to them that are 
bound, is to move the wretched captives to sedition ; to read 
the messages of sovereign grace, is to utter treason against 
its state. 

" The question which the Church of Christ has to deter- 
mine, is, whether the Gospel shall be hidden, or whether 
this monster tyrant shall be overthrown. To its determina- 
tion she must proceed. Considerations of policy and expe- 
diency must be banished from her councils, when high and 
sacred duty summons her to action. The testimonies of 
her solemn assemblies must go forth, the remonstrance of 
her consecrated ministers must be heard abroad. Her 
silence must be broken. The trumpet of battle must be 
sounded against the abomination, which retains the uncivil- 
ized in their degradation in the midst of the enlightened 
and the free ; which endangers the peace, the stability, the 
prosperity, the happiness of mighty nations; which resists 



CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 357 

the progress of the heralds of salvation; which is twice 
accursed; which curseth, in time and in eternity, both him 
that enslaves and him that is enslaved." (Proceedings of 
the London Antislavery Convention for 1841, pp. 95-97.) 



END OF VOLUME I. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



il 1 1 mil ii ii in mil i 

011 839 193 7 A 



